Sixteen thousand kilometres is a long way for the
Vatican's highest judicial officer, second to the Pope, to travel for a
lecture organised by students.
But American Cardinal Raymond Burke was
delighted to address the Australian Catholic Students Association on
"The fall of the Christian West" in Sydney on last Friday night.
He's passionate about the
topic, being worried about shifting ideologies and increasing secularism
in Western nations. He is also passionate about talking to young
people, who he finds are searching for moral leadership.
Burke, 62, is Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic
Signatura, akin to a chief justice.
Before his appointment by Pope
Benedict XVI in 2008, he spent five years as archbishop of St Louis,
Missouri, and before that was bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
His high profile in the US stems from two factors: his success in
increasing vocations to the priesthood and his outspoken criticisms of
Catholic politicians who support same-sex marriage, abortion, and
embryonic stem cell research.
"It gives scandal to other people if they hear a Catholic give an
interview to the media saying that I am proud to be a Catholic but at
the same time I hold these views," he said.
By the time of Burke's promotion to the Vatican, the Kenrick-Glennon
seminary in St Louis had 112 students, with at least nine priests being
ordained each year. That's a position many Western dioceses, including
most in Australia, can only envy.
He made the seminary his priority, emphasising a strong prayer life,
clear, orthodox Catholicism and classical philosophy in the curriculum.
He also spent hours each week getting to know the students. "I used
to go walking with them one at a time for an hour in the afternoons," he
says. "I'd just have to ask one question and I'd learn a lot. It was
most helpful. I admired the students' honesty and openness."
In the public arena, Burke encountered intense controversy when he
warned that the Democratic Party "risks transforming itself definitively
into a 'party of death' because of its choices on bioethical
questions".
He argued that Catholics could not support Barack Obama "with a clear
conscience" because of his stance on life issues.
A generation ago,
like many Irish-American families, the Burkes were Democrats.
The
cardinal's father, a dairy farmer, worked for the party.