Do you know Cardinal Burke? Read (listen) to understand this amazing man as he fights for his life

From today’s Crisis Magazine which I highly recommend

Raymond Cardinal Burke suffers from what I call the Ratzinger Syndrome. Remember God’s Rottweiler? The scourge of the Catholic Church? The inquisitor? Torquemada! There was no end to the slanders heaped upon Ratzinger’s head. This lasted just as long as he was merely a Cardinal. But when he became Pope Benedict XVI, something happened. Folks realized what a sweet, kind, pastoral man Ratzinger was all along.

Anyone who encounters Cardinal Burke realizes he gets the same treatment. The cold, cruel zealot of Leftist caricature is really a sweet, soft-spoken man, a true father. Even now, some will laugh at this notion. No matter. Those who know him, know him.

In 2004, the first year of our marriage, my wife had three miscarriages. We were from St. Louis; then-Archbishop Burke heard of our plight and invited my wife and me to visit him that Christmas.

We waited nervously in the parlor of the archbishop’s residence. We did not know why he invited us. He entered the room, told us to kneel. And then he blessed us with a piece of Gianna Beretta Molla’s wedding dress. Gianna Beretta Molla was the Italian medical doctor who forwent medical treatment for a fibroid tumor because she feared treatment would kill her unborn child. She gave birth to a daughter and then died.

Quite rightly, Molla has become a patron saint of pregnant mothers and the pro-life movement and there is no end to baby girls now named Gianna. Burke said, “I have done this eight times and it has worked eight times.” He scurried around the house looking for another relic of her wedding dress that we could enthrone in our home while we waited for another baby. He was sad because his last one had already been lent out.

There is the story about the young man who was outraged at the teaching of the Church on the question of homosexuality and who verbally dressed down Archbishop Burke for teaching it. He slammed down various religious articles onto Burke’s desk and stormed out “never to return to the Catholic faith.”

Years later that same young man, no longer homosexual, came back to Burke to apologize. Burke happily welcomed back this prodigal son. He embraced him and then rummaged around in a closet and came up with all the things the young man had left in anger years before. Burke had kept them and had kept praying for the young man’s return to the Church.

It is true he has tangled with Pope Francis. He has asked various hard questions about how it is possible that certain eternal teachings of the Church can change. He argues that they cannot change. Some silly leftists have gone so far as to argue that Cardinal Burke is leading a schism of “rad trads.” Again, utter nonsense. He is a loyal son of the Church who has refused even to consider leading such a movement. And, yes, people have asked him to lead an open revolt. They say he does not recognize the papacy of Francis, but that is a lie.

It is sad to suspect that Cardinal Burke will likely never get the full Ratzinger treatment that he deserves—that is, the widespread understanding of who he really is. As it is, he lies sedated in a hospital bed fighting COVID. He is on a respirator. His situation is described as “serious, but stable”.

You may also ask Gianna Molla for her help. She loves him dearly. Ask them to save him. He has much more work to do.