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Catholic Cardinal Blames Radical Feminists for Pedophilia

The former archbishop of St. Louis, who was the highest-ranking American Cardinal during Pope Benedict’s tenure, has come out blaming the problems of the modern church on men who are “feminized” and on “radical feminism” that pushes men away.

via Kate Ausburn
via Kate Ausburn

Cardinal Raymond Burke was interviewed last week by The New Emangelization Project, which claims there is a “man crisis” in the Catholic church. In the interview, Cardinal Burke said he believes that “the radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized.” Cardinal Burke didn’t stop at blaming women’s rights, though. He also made sure to include blaming sexual identity and gender expression for the widespread sexual abuse of minors.

“There was a period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood,” Burke said. “Sadly some of these disordered men sexually abused minors – a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”

According to the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Raymond Burke as Archbishop of the St. Louis diocese was a prelate who covered up for abusing clergy. SNAP is the largest non-profit supporter of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. In September 2014, SNAP found that while in St. Louis, “Burke was often reckless, deceptive and callous regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims. He expanded the troubling practice of importing sexually troubled priests from across the US, letting some of them work in local parishes and letting others stay in church facilities that are secretive and careless about public safety.”

Burke later reflected on the fact that same-sex marriage is becoming more accepted. “When the French government unilaterally imposed the so‑called same‑sex marriage, which of course is not marriage at all, it brought out two million people who rallied behind the simple image of fathers and mothers holding the hands of their children,” Burke said, adding that “fathers are essential to the family.”

Burke went on to talk about men in society as a whole, declaring that young men are scared away from marriage “because of a constant and insistent demanding of rights for women.” He then insisted that more men and boys are shying away from the Church because more women and girls are involved, and thus “the activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved.”

In 1983, the Catholic Church lifted the ban on girls serving as altar assistants. Cardinal Burke believes this was a mistake because it has the “natural” result of pushing boys away. “Young boys don’t want to do things with girls,” he said. “It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time. I want to emphasize that the practice of having exclusively boys as altar servers has nothing to do with inequality of women in the Church.”

Matthew James Christoff, who launched The New Emangelization Project in 2013 to deal with the “man crisis” of the Church, conducted the interview with Cardinal Burke. Christoff at one point during the interview said, “Men think that the Mass is feminized and they don’t really understand the powerful manliness of the Mass.” At the end of the interview, Cardinal Burke thanked Christoff for the work he’s done, saying it is “key to the future strengthening of the life of the Church, and obviously to our whole society.”

Media Resources: The Washington Post 1/13/2015; The New Emangelization Project 1/5/2015; SNAP News 9/17/15;

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