Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, one of the United States' most conservative and controversial Catholic leaders, has been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to head the Vatican's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura.

The appointment, announced on 27 June, means the 60-year-old canon lawyer and, up to now, Archbishop of St Louis, will eventually be made a cardinal. He is the first non-European and only the third non-Italian to ever head the Church's most important tribunal, which was established in the fifteenth century. He replaces Cardinal Agostino Vallini, 68, who was named Vicar of Rome on the same day.

In his new post Archbishop Burke will deal mainly with disputes over marriage annulments. But his office also deals with conflicts between Vatican offices and appeals against decisions by diocesan bishops or Roman Curia dicasteries.

Archbishop Burke is perhaps best known for insisting that Catholic political candidates who support legalised abortion, and those who vote for them, should be denied the Eucharist. It is a stance he held during nine years as bishop of his home diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin, beginning in 1995, and one that has gained him even greater prominence in the last four and half years as archbishop in St Louis in Missouri - especially during the 2004 presidential elections.

But the controversies have not been limited to the politics of abortion. Archbishop Burke has also been accused of failing to act following claims of sexual abuse by priests. And in 2005 he excommunicated the lay directors and priest of St Stanislaus Kostka Parish in St Louis for refusing to put their church fully under archdiocesan control. The parish had been operated as a lay corporation since 1891 when it was designated to care for Polish immigrants. Archbishop Burke also excommunicated three women last March who underwent "ordinations" inside archdiocesan boundaries.

The newly named prefect for the Apostolic Signatura is no stranger to Rome. He studied in the city from 1971 to 1975 (theology) and 1980 to 1984 (canon law); he was also "defender of the bond" at the Signatura from 1989 until his appointment in late 1994 as bishop of La Crosse.

Ordained a priest by Pope Paul VI in 1975 and a bishop by Pope John Paul II in January 1995, Archbishop Burke is one of the world's most enthusiastic episcopal supporters of reviving the Tridentine Rite. He helped found a religious order for perpetuating the Old Mass in 2002 in La Crosse and when he arrived in St Louis he brought in another neo-Tridentine priestly fraternity. He has presided over a number of priestly ordinations in the old rite, including one last summer in St Louis' cathedral - the first such ceremony in 40 years. It is not surprising that Archbishop Burke was also one of the key figures Pope Benedict consulted when drafting his controversial motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" that normalised widespread use of the Tridentine Rite.

Meanwhile in the US Archbishop Burke said at an emotional press conference shortly after the appointment was announced that he was "frustrated and bothered" that his media presence often left much to be desired. In his travels, he said, parishioners frequently remarked that they found him to be quite different from what his supporters saw as his negative portrayal in the press.

News of the archbishop's reassignment brought wildly divergent reactions. Among his conservative supporters - at least one of whom compared him to a "modern-day [St] John Fisher" for his firm defences of Church teaching - several commentators lamented the archbishop's departure for a position that tends to hold a much lower public profile, while several of Archbishop Burke's critics quietly rejoiced, with one St Louis priest telling friends that "there is a God."

Speaking for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the body's president Cardinal Francis George of Chicago praised the archbishop's "untiring dedication and great expertise", calling the new prefect "an ideal selection" to head the Church's top court.

Back to homepage