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Cardinal Burke: ‘I will resist’ the Pope should he contravene doctrine (Review)

February 9, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Vatican watchers were surprised this weekend when Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the leading voices for orthodoxy in the Church, said he would be willing to “resist” Pope Francis if the pontiff were to attempt to change the practice of the Church in denying Communion to those in “second marriages.”

Speaking to France2 television, Burke, who was recently removed by Francis as head of the Church’s highest marriage court, said, moreover, that there was no analogy between homosexual activity and marriage.

“I cannot accept that Communion can be given to a person in an irregular union because it is adultery,” the American cardinal said. “On the question of people of the same sex, this has nothing to do with marriage. This is an affliction suffered by some people whereby they are attracted against nature sexually to people of the same sex.”

Asked, “If, perchance, the pope will persist in this direction, what will you do?” Cardinal Burke replied, “I shall resist, I can do nothing else. There is no doubt that it is a difficult time; this is clear, this is clear.” The cardinal agreed that the situation is “painful” and “worrisome”.

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The comment is coming as a surprise to those who, concerned at the direction the Church seems to be taking towards the goals of the progressivist left, are nonetheless accustomed to more circumspect language from prelates like Burke. Until recently, the US Cardinal, as a senior member of the Vatican’s curia and a long-serving diocesan bishop, had expressed himself with a pinpoint precision marked by reserve.

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