Archbishop Burke takes lead role at meeting

BALTIMORE — St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke took center stage during debate on two controversial topics Tuesday as the nation's Roman Catholic bishops met in Baltimore for their annual fall meeting.

Burke, who is trained as a canon, or church, lawyer, submitted 10 amendments to two proposed documents, more than any other bishop except former St. Louis and current Philadelphia archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali, who submitted 15.

During the debate on preparing to receive Holy Communion, Burke was adamant that the bishops address an issue he's dealt with in the last few years.

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Late last night after arriveing back home from a trip, I was able to see a couple of clips of Archbishop Burke discussing both the Communion document and the homosexuality document. It amazes me how he and other bishops, exercising fidelity to the Christ and His Church and being outnumbered about 2 to 1 or better, are able to restrain themselves. It must be extraordinarily frustrating having to contend with a group of bishops who are so far out in left field - bishops who are afraid to speak the truth, afraid to bear witness to the truth, afraid to preach the truth in season and out of season.

Archbishop Burke was quite clear that Canon Law explicitly forbids those in manifest grave sin from Holy Communion. It is not optional, as many bishops persist.

I cannot help be feel the necessity of fervent prayer for our bishops who do all that they can to uphold the teachings of the Church - their courage and resolve is a blessing to all of us, and those bishops who are either weak or confused also need our prayers for their enlightenment or their conversion (or both).

It's a sad commentary when the effort to add contraception as a reason to refrain from Holy Communion failed 148 to 75.

Is the practice of artificial contraception not a mortal sin? Is one not supposed to refrain from receiving Communion if one is in the state of mortal sin?

Are the faithful to understand, then, that the bishops saying, in effect, that artificial contraception is not a mortal sin?

There is some goods news in this though - about a third of the bishops voted to add contraception to the list of examples. The bad news is that the USCCB needs to be purged of about two thirds of the remaining bishops.