Vatican Signatura Prefect, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, has told a Washington gathering that politicians who support gay marriage or abortion rights cannot receive sacraments without publicly repenting their ways. "It is not possible to be a practicing Catholic and to conduct oneself in this manner," said Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, the former archbishop of St. Louis, Politica Daily reports.
"Neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to such politicians," Burke said. "To deny these is not a judgment of the soul, but a recognition of the scandal and its effects."
The remarks come from an account of the 50-minute speech by Deal Hudson, director of InsideCatholic.com, a conservative Web site that hosted the Sept. 18 annual gala for some 200 supporters.
Archbishop Burke did not just say that politicians like the late Senator Edward Kennedy should not be provided a private funeral; he advocates denying them a funeral Mass at all, Politics Daily says.
Cardinal O'Malley earlier this month rejected that course of action "in the strongest terms," as he wrote in a blog post.
In his well-received speech last Friday - the standing ovation lasted seven minutes - Burke rejected such an approach.
"We should have the courage to look truth in the eye and call things by their common names." He added that for a politician who support abortion rights and gay rights, for example, to return to the sacraments, "his repentance must also be public."
Burke also rejected concerns that speaking out as he has is fomenting divisions within the church, and at the highest levels.
"The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth in love. This does not destroy unity but helps to repair a breach in the life of the Church."
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