I was pleased to see that the UK’s best Catholic weekly has taken interest in His Eminence Raymond Card. Burke’s most recent book, Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ. UK HERE
The cardinal said the devil tries to sow doubt in Catholics’ minds about defending human life publicly
Cardinal Raymond Burke has revealed that his mother was advised to abort him.
In a new book-length interview with the French journalist Guillaume d’Alançon, Cardinal Burke says that when his mother was pregnant with him, she became seriously ill and a doctor advised her to have an abortion.
According to Cardinal Burke, the doctor said: “You already have five children, it is important for you to be in good health so as to take care of them”.
“My parents refused,” says the cardinal, who is now chaplain to the Order of Malta. “My parents told him that they believed in God and that Christ would give them the necessary help. My mother gave birth to me, and everything went well.
“I was therefore quite touched by this question of defending human life, because I could very well have been killed.”
In the book, entitled Hope for the World, Cardinal Burke argues that the “ferocious attack against life today” results from “the distortion of the sexual act by contraception”, [and homosexual acts and demonic “gender” twisting] and urges Catholics to defend human life.
He adds: “The devil, of course, wants to discourage us: he tries to sow doubt in our minds about defending human life publicly. And he subtly tempts us to remain silent, to mute our conscience, to tell ourselves that we are personally against abortion but do not have to express our faith and moral convictions in public.”
Elsewhere in the book, the cardinal claims Barack Obama “wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings”. He appears to be referring to the legal battles over President Obama’s healthcare mandate, the ongoing conflict surrounding religious freedom, and the administration’s demand that public schools, including Catholic ones, adopt gender neutral bathrooms.
“The federal government is trying to reduce religious liberty, contrary to the Constitution of the United States,” Cardinal Burke says in the interview.
“President Obama wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings and to prevent her applying her law to her own hospitals and schools.
[…]
Barack Obama “…wants to push the Church back behind the walls of her church buildings…” As does Hilary Clinton who said back in April 2015 that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” in order to give free reign for the murder of infants – I mean – in order to give women “reproductive health care and safe childbirth.”
Translate: In order give access to sexual license with long term troublesome consequence.
What does it say about our culture when the most mendacious of the species are willing to say what would be unthinkable until a few years ago? ISIS appears to have its rivals for the suppression of Christianity right here.
Thank you for drawing this to our attention! I am happy to see that the full article is generously available online at the Catholic Herald site, for those of us who do not (yet?) have any kind of subscription…
I wonder if it was a Catholic doctor making the suggestion back in 1947/48 in Richland Center, Wisconsin? (I suppose the Burkes would have gone to a Catholic doctor if they could.) I have a friend whose mother was having a little trouble in the UK in the 1960s – but I wouldn’t, if she hadn’t insisted on knowing if she was pregnant, against the medical advice of an immediate d & c (and the nudge, nudge, wink, wink urging of the nun who was nursing her to go ahead without asking too many questions).
Benedict Joseph asked, “What does it say about our culture when the most mendacious of the species are willing to say what would be unthinkable until a few years ago?” I’ve wondered something along this line, too, thinking by comparison how much caution Hitler realized he must exercise in ‘dealing with’ the Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen.
Cardinal Burke’s is the voice crying out in the wilderness, the voice of reason, caritas, and dialogue, now exiled.
Venerator: I bought the kindle version (only $10!) and 49% way through, Cardinal Burke explains that the doctor was not Catholic–but his mother had been hospitalized for several weeks at that point in the pregnancy.
Excellent book so far! I am learning a lot about the trajectory of the post-Vatican Church and Cardinal Burke’s life.
I got mine at Leaflet today. I was initially told they were out, but after whining about it, someone found a copy for me.
jameeka,
Thank you for filling in that part of Cardinal Burke’s biography!
@Venerator Sti Lot
Thanks for posting about Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen.
I just looked him up. Boy we sure could use a guy like him today!