Cardinal Burke Looks Back & Ahead

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke recently sat down with CNA/EWTN News reporter David Kerr to talk about his 1st year as a Cardinal (Cardinal Burke reflects on his first year in the Sacred College). & while part of the article looks back at the past, the Cardinal also shared his concerns about what is going on in his beloved United States as well as what he sees as the possible direction things could go here.

Talking about  the struggle for his country's culture he was very blunt. "It is a war." He said that as his way of describing the battle lines between "a culture of secularization which is quite strong in our nation," & "the Christian culture which has marked the life of the United States strongly during the first 200 years of its history."

He went on to issue  a challenge. He said that it is "critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law." He added that this is especially true in defense of life & the family. He then issued a warning. "If Christians do not stand strong, give a strong witness and insist on what is right and good for us both as and individuals and society, this secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us."

He also sees persecution of the catholic Church as a distinct possibility here in the USA. "Yes, I think we’re well on the way to it." To back that up he pointed to areas of social outreach - such as adoption and foster care - where the Church has had to withdraw rather than compromise its principles. & if this trend continues, it could reach a point where the Church, "even by announcing her own teaching," is accused of "engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality." When asked if he could envision U.S. Catholics ever being arrested for preaching their faith, he replied: "I can see it happening, yes."

The Cardinal isn't all gloom & doom. He says he is just being a realist. he does have some hope for the future. "I think that sometimes the young people understand much better the bankruptcy of a totally secularized culture because they’ve grown up with it," he observed. While many youth "have seen their families broken" & "have been exposed to all the evils of pornography," he sees it as leading them to conclude that the secularization project "is going nowhere and that it will destroy them" if left unchecked.
He had some pretty strong things to say about U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is currently seeking to force most of the country's employers, including Catholic institutions, to cover contraception & sterilization in employee health plans. "To the degree to which (Sebelius) proclaims herself to be a practicing Catholic, she is very wrong," said Cardinal Burke. He says it is "simply incomprehensible" for a Catholic to "support the kind of measures that she is supporting."
He says the upcoming 2012 election is  "very significant." Catholics "have a serious duty to vote and to try and find the best candidate to elect." He added that some "good and solid, right-thinking individuals" may even be called to run for public office themselves.
Yesterday I shared a bit about where I saw the USA heading. Cardinal Burke's views are a solid confirmation of what I said. What he is saying should be getting wide distribution in Catholic circles & heeded. He may not see himself as a future Pope (as he said when asked). Who knows. That is the future. What he is doing now is what he knows he must do as a shepherd. He is speaking out & providing the leadership & teaching needed in this critical time.
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In the article he also talks about many other things like the liturgy & canon law. The whole article is well worth reading.