Reports: Cardinal Burke to be demoted, removed as prefect of the supreme tribunal

Veteran Vatican reporter Sandro Magister, in a piece dated today, writes in rather grim terms of an “Exile to Malta for Cardinal Burke”:

The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine.

In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia.

Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop of Opus Dei Celso Morga Iruzubieta, secretary of the congregation for the clergy, destined to leave Rome for an Iberian diocese not of the first rank.

But now an even more eminent decapitation seems to be on the way.

The next victim would in fact be the United States cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who from being prefect of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura would not be promoted – as some are fantasizing in the blogosphere – to the difficult but prestigious see of Chicago, but rather demoted to the pompous – but ecclesiastically very modest – title of “cardinal patron” of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, replacing the current head, Paolo Sardi, who recently turned 80.

If confirmed, Burke’s exile would be even more drastic than the one inflicted on Cardinal Piacenza, who, transferred from the important congregation for the clergy to the marginal apostolic penitentiary, nevertheless remained in the leadership of a curial dicastery.

With the shakeup on the way, Burke would instead be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.

Such a move, notes Magister, would be one “that seems to have no precedent.”

LifeSiteNews.com, citing sources in Rome, now reports:

… Cardinal Raymond Burke, the head of the Vatican’s highest court, known as the Apostolic Signatura, is to be removed from his post as head of the Vatican dicastery and given a non-curial assignment as patron of the Order of Malta.

The timing of the move is key since Cardinal Burke is currently on the list to attend October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family. He is attending in his capacity as head of one of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, so if he is removed prior to the Synod it could mean he would not be able to attend.

The piece points out that Cardinal Burke “is still in his Episcopal prime,” being just 66 years old. If Cardinal Burke—whose name is on the list of participants—is excluded from participating in the Synod, it will be nothing short of shocking. It would, it seems apparent, signal an open and aggressive offensive against those who think and believe, for one, that canon law is not just a matter of Church law, but a matter of defending and buttressing Church doctrine in cases and matters that are controversial and at the front lines of the broad clash between Catholicism and secularism. Put another way, if this news is accurate and Cardinal Burke is removed, it’s nearly impossible to write it off as “politics” but as something far more distressing. More on that, I’m sure, in the near future.