Pope Francis leaves his most critical ultra-conservative cardinal without an apartment

Pope Francis has decided to punish the ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most critical of his management, without his apartment of more than 400 square meters and will reduce his salary.

The decision has not been made public, but was reported by some conservative portals that reported that, in the meeting on November 20 with the heads of the dicasteries (Vatican ministries), Francis informed them that he would eliminate the privileged rental of which the cardinal enjoys and would reduce his salary.

Austen Ivereigh, British journalist and author of The Great Reformer, very close to the pontiff, explained that Francis spoke to him about this decision during a brief meeting in the Vatican, although he wanted to clarify that the pope never called the cardinal an “enemy”, as some pointed out. media.

According to other media such as the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the pope would have explained that the reason for his gesture was the disunity that the cardinal creates and that he is using that apartment and that salary that the Vatican gives him precisely against the Church.

“I never used the word enemy or the pronoun my. I simply announced it at the meeting of the heads of the dicasteries, without giving specific explanations,” was the response that the pope gave to Ivereigh, as he explained.

The American cardinal turned 75 last June, the retirement age for prelates, he was prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura and also former patron emeritus of the Order of Malta, so he does not have any position in the Vatican Curia.

Even so, he has an apartment a few meters from Saint Peter's Square of more than 400 square meters and, as Ivereigh reveals, he has continued to receive a Vatican salary of between 5,000 and 6,000 euros per month.

For the moment, Burke has not reacted, but in the regular newsletter he writes dedicated to the faithful he stated, although without mentioning any specific fact, that “confusion, division and error have entered even into the Church.”

The cardinal participated in a conference titled The Synodal Babel, the day before the Synod began, in which the assembly promoted by Francis was harshly criticized, in which for the first time lay people, including women, were able to vote.

Letters with doubts

In addition, Burke and other retired cardinals, such as Walter Brandmueller of Germany, the Mexican Juan Sandoval, the Guinean Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen, retired archbishop of Hong Kong, published a letter with five doubts presented to Francis about the Synod.

In it they expressed concern that “the blessing of homosexual couples could create confusion, not only by making them seem analogous to marriage, but because homosexual acts would be presented as a good” and other issues.

Burke had already participated years ago in another letter with doubts sent to the pope after the publication of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

On November 11, it was announced that Francis had removed Joseph E. as bishop of the American diocese of Tyler (Texas).. Strickland, after an inspection.

Strickland is an outspoken critic of Francis and in 2018 he joined the accusations against the pontiff declared by the former nuncio to the United States, Carlo Maria Viganò, regarding Francis' alleged knowledge of the abuses of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.