Wednesday 24 April 2024

Cardinal Burke receives donations for Vatican flat

Pope Francis reportedly takes Vatican apartment, salary from Cardinal Burke  | Catholic News Agency

The US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke (75), known as a critic of the Pope, has apparently been allowed to stay in his Vatican flat. 

This emerges from a report in the French newspaper "La Croix" on Sunday. 

In it, the newspaper's Rome correspondent Loup Besmond de Senneville writes that the cardinal has turned to financial supporters who have promised to pay for his flat in Via Rusticucci, a few metres from St Peter's Square. De Senneville confirmed this when asked by katholisch.de.

Media reports about the US cardinal's official residence and salary caused a stir last November. It was initially reported that the Pope had cancelled his salary and his flat. 

However, Francis had issued a decree on Vatican rental flats. 

It states that senior members of the Curia must pay the market rent in future. 

According to "La Croix", Burke's 400-square-metre flat is said to cost around 8,000 euros a month, while other media even report monthly expenses of around 12,000 euros, which can hardly be afforded with a cardinal's salary of 4,500 euros. 

Last year, the Argentinian newspaper "La Nacion" wrote that the cardinal is supported by donations from wealthy US families. 

In addition, Burke, who comes from Wisconsin, owns property worth around 50 million US dollars in his home country.

The canon lawyer Burke was appointed president of the highest ecclesiastical court, the Apostolic Signature, in the Vatican in 2008 and was promoted to cardinal shortly afterwards. 

Pope Francis removed him from this position in 2014 after Burke criticised him on moral theological issues. 

Two years later, Burke and three other cardinals publicly criticised the papal letter "Amoris laetitia" from 2016 and the opening of the reception of communion for remarried divorcees contained therein. 

The US cardinal also lamented the participation of lay people in the World Synod last autumn. 

Together with four other cardinals, he had expressed doubts about papal decisions and criticised Cardinal Victor Fernandez, Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, for his vague answers.