Pope Francis faces unprecedented attacks from American opponents

On the one hand: Pope Francis, who insists on a Catholic Church open to all, a “field hospital” ready to heal the wounds of a suffering humanity. On the other: a small but vocal minority that opposed the pontiff and his reforms.

A confrontation between the two is underway.

The leader of the opposition is American Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the church’s legal experts and a figure whose style and approach harks back to the church of a different era and whose views align closely with those of its traditionalist wing. Francis, while stating that he defends the doctrine and principles of the church, has tried to distance it from some of those customs that he sees as hindering its mission.

Those who oppose Francis say they are deeply concerned about his openness to giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, along with pastoral reception for LGBTQIA+ people. They don’t like his focus on immigrants and the climate crisis and instead want a pope who lays down the law and presents doctrine in black and white terms.

This pope preaches for a more humble church, focused on service and seeking to take the Christian message to the world.

Although the attacks against him have probably stung, Francis has often turned the other cheek, going so far as to say that he does not seek to suppress opponents; he was also singled out by Vatican leaders who had different views than his.

Now, however, in the 11th year of his papacy, the pope is taking more assertive steps to confront some of the opposition he has faced, which is centered in the US.

With his 87th birthday on Sunday (17) and battling health issues, he has no time to waste.

Francisco has decided that Burke, an adversary of his for years, will lose some of his privileges, reportedly including a subsidy for his 417-square-meter apartment and a monthly stipend.

This follows the pope’s decision last month to remove Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland from his leadership post, who accused Francis of undermining the church’s central teachings, including on politically charged issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. .

Supporters of Burke and Strickland say Francis is a “dictator” pope who stifles dissent, while others suggest the pope is punishing his critics. Although the attacks have no obvious precedent in recent history, Francis has allowed them to continue, often ignoring them. He is also aware that sometimes silence is the best response and that reform is often met with resistance.

“Francis told me he was taking away Cardinal Burke’s apartment and salary because he was using these privileges ‘against the Church,’” papal biographer Austen Ivereigh told CNN . Ivereigh met with the pope on November 27.

“Clearly, his patience has finally run out,” Ivereigh explained. “For a long time, Cardinal Burke questioned Francis’ authority and teachings. This would be shocking in any organization, but it is particularly shocking in the Catholic Church, given the special role the papacy has in defending unity.”

Francis doesn’t mind being criticized, but he stressed that cardinals take a specific oath of obedience to the pope and his successors, Ivereigh said.

A CNN has contacted the Vatican for comment.

A pope’s tolerance for dissent

In 2018, Burke told a group of Catholics in Rome that there are circumstances in which it would be acceptable to disobey the pope. The crowd would have applauded and cheered. This would have been unthinkable in previous pontificates, in which loyalty to the papacy was placed at a premium by conservative Catholics. The traditionalist cardinal from Wisconsin said the reform effort begun by Francis — the synod — “forgets the divine nature of the Church.”

It is likely that it was the final straw for the pope. “A pope of Cardinal Burke’s temperament would not have tolerated such dissent for a day, let alone ten years,” said Dawn Eden Goldstein, a theologian and canon lawyer based in Washington, DC.

The Strickland case, however, is distinct from the Burke case. A bishop in the Catholic Church is not a “branch manager” of the pope and has a certain degree of autonomy. Strickland was removed after a Vatican investigation into his leadership concluded that it was not “feasible” for him to continue leading the Diocese of Tyler, east of Dallas.

Strickland also took the extraordinary step of questioning Francis’ legitimacy, something that goes against the communion that bishops must maintain with popes.

Burke, on the other hand, remains a voting cardinal. He is the equivalent of a direct employee of the pope in Rome, and his criticism of Francis is more thoughtfully formulated than Strickland’s.

Cardinals who head departments in the Roman Curia, the church’s central administration, receive free apartments and payments of up to $5,900 a month. But Burke no longer has a job in the church’s central administration, and the decision about his apartment comes as the Vatican seeks to resolve a financial deficit by guaranteeing market rates on its properties.

The cardinal served as prefect of the equivalent of the Church’s Supreme Court (where he remains a counselor) and was later patron of the Order of Malta. In this ancient group of Catholic chivalry, he became involved in the order’s public dispute with the pope.

The dispute centered on the distribution of condoms, with Burke pushing for the removal of a member of the order and claiming to have the pope’s support. Documents released by Wikileaks suggested that the cardinal did not have authority from Francis to do so.

A CNN reached out to Strickland for comment but did not hear back. Burke declined to comment.

American politics at stake

Opposition to Francis is also linked to secular politics. Burke described himself as “very happy” about the election of President Donald Trump and joined other US bishops in calling for President Joe Biden, a Catholic, to be refused communion over his support for abortion laws.

In 2004, Burke, then a bishop, announced that he would not give communion to presidential candidate John Kerry for similar reasons. Although Francis has spoken out strongly against abortion, he does not support Biden’s refusal of communion.

Strickland described the US president as “evil” and sent a video message to a rally seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. The church’s politicized rhetoric is expected to heat up as the US heads into an election year.

“MAGA (Make America Great Again) politics and MAGA Catholics overlap in many ways, especially in their culture war approach to everything,” said David Gibson, director of the Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University. “It’s all about generating anger and defining yourself against both what you are against and what you stand for.”

Both Trump and Burke supporters fear they are losing their once-privileged place in church and society, so they portray the past as a “golden age,” Gibson said.

The pope described some of his opponents in the US as “backwards”, saying they have replaced faith with ideology. Gibson added: “Cardinal Burke and his ilk can justify anything they say or do against the pope – they (believe) they are the key to saving the church from the pope.”

Pope Francis received Trump and Biden at the Vatican.

Tactics that can go wrong

Goldstein, the D.C. theologian and canon lawyer, has met with the cardinal on several occasions and says “there are people and organizations who would like to see Burke’s vision of the church become mainstream because it would make the church more useful to political interests.” .

The cardinal wrote the preface to a book criticizing the synod, which was supported by a group that opposes Catholic teaching on issues such as care for the poor, the environment, indigenous populations and immigrants, she highlighted. The cardinal seeks to create an aura around himself that gives the “illusion of a return to an earlier era” and Francis has been tolerant of the attacks, Goldstein said.

However, as Goldstein said, such dissent is new in recent years and would have been unimaginable in recent papacies.

Others point out that removing the cardinal’s privileges could have unintended consequences and turn Burke into a “martyr” for the cause.

Massimo Faggioli, a church historian at Villanova University, told CNN That could make Burke, who is supported by U.S. donors and who will likely find other housing in Rome, something of a national cardinal. This would be similar to early modern “crown cardinals,” who were appointed or funded by a European Catholic monarch, he said.

Burke’s informed decision could also influence a future papal election by alienating some cardinal voters who would like to opt for a candidate who governs differently from Francis.

The pope is probably aware of the risks – and willing to take them, given his mission. Last September, Francis created 21 new cardinals, including three Argentine colleagues and two other Latin Americans, 10 Europeans, three Africans, two Asians and just one from the US, Robert Francis Prevost, who was born in Chicago but held most of his pastoral ministry in Peru.

At the center of the pope’s vision is the church’s direction toward what is essential to the Christian faith. Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff recently tweeted a photo of Burke wearing the ceremonial cape “cappa magna,” a red silk train.

Boff, who previously served for many years as a Franciscan priest, is a leading advocate of liberation theology, a Latin American movement that places special emphasis on serving the poor.

He came into conflict with Vatican authorities in the 1980s, but has always maintained healthy relations with Brazilian bishops and has a good relationship with Pope Francis. “Francisco is one of us,” Boff said in a 2016 interview with German newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeigr.

“My brothers and sisters, conservative Christians, tell me,” he wrote when publishing the photo, “what does this cardinal with all his pomp have to do with the Jesus who was born in a manger and died on a cross?”