Cdl Burke: "“The vestments, everything, are part of a tradition”

Getting caught up on some things.  WaPo took shots at those extravagant traddys like Pope Benedict and Cdl Burke.
The emeritus pope, as Benedict is now known, is not the church’s only fashion plate. Cardinal Raymond Burke is perhaps best known for arguing, as archbishop of St. Louis, that Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights should be denied Communion. In Rome, where he is now prefect of the church’s tribunal, he has also earned a reputation for operatic regalia. He is one of the few cardinals who dons cappa ­magnas, the long trains of watered silk that can look like scarlet lava flowing down from his throne. His velvet gloves and extravagant brocades prompted Vatican officials to ask him to “tone it down a bit,” according to noted religion reporter David Gibson. [The report appears to be total hearsay on who said what to who and in fact could be entirely fabricated]

The vestments, everything, are part of a tradition,” Burke told Gibson. “We need to understand that and not just discard it and say, ‘Well, it was all just an ugly accretion.’ ”

(“I’m sorry,” Burke said when reached by phone. “I won’t be able to respond.”) [Hmm...]
whole article at WaPo

I've got a theory on why the pope doesn't like the liturgical externals, beyond being a Jesuit(that's what the article is about btw, WaPo calls him "simplistic" not simple, which almost seems like an insult).  Will be posting as soon as I get caught up. 

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2 comments:

James K Savonarola said...

God save us from simplistic journalists who cant fathom a difference between people and their office

GOR said...

‘Simplistic’ doesn’t just sound like an insult BC, it IS an insult – as in, oversimplifying complex matters, being a fool or a simpleton…

Unfortunately, some noted traditional bloggers have also fallen into the same trap in describing the Holy Father. Not in so many words, of course, but using expressions as ‘growing into the job’, being ‘naïve’, ‘not understanding protocol’, etc. etc.

I suspect that was the view of St. Francis taken by many in his day. And even further back Our Lord was denigrated for being a nobody from Nazareth…

Good company to be in, I’d say!