{"id":717,"date":"2008-06-27T08:37:11","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T08:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/to-roma.html"},"modified":"2008-06-27T08:37:11","modified_gmt":"2008-06-27T08:37:11","slug":"to-roma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/to-roma.html","title":{"rendered":"To Roma"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Catholics \u00a0– well, many of them – will be saddened to know that Archbishop Burke is leaving them. As rumored, he has been named Prefect of the\u00a0 Supreme Tribunal of Apostolic Signatura<\/a>.
\nMore from John Allen:<\/a><\/p>\n

The appointment puts Burke, who turns 60 on June 30, in line to become a cardinal.
\nBurke is expected to relocate to Rome in August to take up his new duties.
\nThe nomination comes as little surprise to church-watchers, who have long speculated that Burke might return to Rome at some point. Burke received a doctorate in canon law from Rome\u2019s Gregorian University in 1984, and from 1989 to 1994 he served as the Defender of the Bond in the Apostolic Signatura, a position equivalent to the top defense attorney in the Vatican\u2019s legal system.
\nIn July 2006, Benedict XVI named Burke a member of the Apostolic Signatura, a move that some observers at the time interpreted as grooming him to eventually take over the top spot on the court.
\nIn the Vatican, there are three courts: the Roman Rota, which is an appeals court that deals largely with cases involving requests for annulment of a marriage; the Apostolic Signatura, more or less the \u201cSupreme Court\u201d of the church; and the Apostolic Penitentiary, which handles cases involving the \u201cinternal forum,\u201d meaning especially delicate matters that can\u2019t be resolved through the normal legal process.
\nIn Catholic circles, Burke has long been considered one of the most precise legal minds at the senior levels of the church, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Code of Canon Law<\/em>, the legal system of the Catholic church, as well as the tradition of case law stemming from that code.
\nsnip<\/em>
\nGenerally speaking, the following sorts of cases are heard by the Signatura:
\n\u2022 Conflicts between two Vatican offices;
\n\u2022 Appeals against decisions by diocesan bishops and Vatican offices;
\n\u2022 Appeals against decisions by the Roman Rota.
\nTwo other Americans are members of the Apostolic Signatura: Cardinal Edward Egan of New Yor, and Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But..not before placing a St. Louis nun, Sr. Louise Lears, under canonical discipline:<\/a>
\n(In the Archdiocese’s typically excellent mode of communication, all the pertinent documents are linked at the top of the page)<\/p>\n

After a canonical process of several months, Archbishop Raymond Burke has, today, decided the case of Sister Louise Lears, S.C., a member of the \u201cpastoral team\u201d at Saint Cronan Parish, <\/a>who was accused of four delicts, all connected with her encouragement of, promotion of and participation in the attempted ordination of two women to the Sacred Priesthood at a local synagogue in November of last year. Delicts, which must be published in the Church, are grave and external violations against the Catholic faith or moral teaching. A list of several delicts is found from cann. 1364 to 1399 of the Code of Canon Law.
\nThe delicts of which Sister Louise Lears is accused are: 1) the obstinate rejection, after written
\nadmonition, of the truth of the faith that it is impossible for a woman to receive ordination to the Sacred Priesthood (cann.750, \u00a72; and 1371, 1\u00ba); 2) the public incitement of the faithful to animosity or hatred toward the Apostolic See or an Ordinary because of an act of ecclesiastical power or ministry (can. 1373); 3) the grave external violation of Divine or Canon Law, with the urgent need to present and repair the scandal involved (can. 1399); and 4) prohibited participation in sacred rites (can. 1365).
\n\u00a0Throughout the canonical process, Sister Louise Lears and her canonical advocate have been given ample opportunity to review all of the proofs and arguments in the case, and to respond to them. In other words, Sister Louise Lears\u2019 right to defend herself against the accusations was carefully safeguarded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll find good coverage and commentary on both\u00a0matters at the \u00a0St. Louis Catholic blog. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Catholics \u00a0– well, many of them – will be saddened to know that Archbishop Burke is leaving them. As rumored, he has been named Prefect of the\u00a0 Supreme Tribunal of Apostolic Signatura. More from John Allen: The appointment puts Burke, who turns 60 on June 30, in line to become a cardinal. Burke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Roma - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/06\/to-roma.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Roma - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"St. Louis Catholics \u00a0– well, many of them – will be saddened to know that Archbishop Burke is leaving them. 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As rumored, he has been named Prefect of the\u00a0 Supreme Tribunal of Apostolic Signatura. More from John Allen: The appointment puts Burke, who turns 60 on June 30, in line to become a cardinal. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}