Cardinal Burke is able to say daily Mass again, encourages faithful to pray Rosary

Cardinal Burke is an important conservative leader in the Catholic Church. He contracted COVID in August but is back to Mass now, encouraging the faithful to pray the Rosary.

Cardinal Burke/Instagram

Cardinal Raymond Burke has announced positive developments in his continued recovery from COVID-19.

The former archbishop of St. Louis wrote a Facebook post Friday evening to give a brief update on his condition and to encourage Catholics to pray the Rosary every day.

The cardinal noted that his recovery process is still ongoing and “intensive.” His condition, however, has improved to the point that he could begin offering daily Mass once again.

“Words cannot adequately express my joy at this gift of God’s grace in my life,” he said. “As a priest, Bishop and Cardinal, the return to the daily offering of the Holy Mass, the principal daily work of every priest, unites me most fully to you in our spiritual bond as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.”

After requesting prayers to resume his regular level of “pastoral activities,” Burke continued his post by calling on the faithful to pray the Rosary each day, highlighting three “important considerations.”

“First, the message of Our Lady of Fatima urges us to honor her by praying the Rosary every day. Second, when Our Lady concluded her apparitions at Fatima on October 13, 1917, Our Lord granted a remarkable confirmation of the apparitions in the Miracle of the Sun. Third, in asking us to pray daily the Rosary, Our Lady indicated a specific intention: peace. Pope Saint John Paul II, echoing Our Lady’s messages to us at Fatima, explained that ‘the Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace,'” the cardinal wrote.

This peace, he added, is not a worldly peace, but “the peace obtained for us by the blood of the Cross of Jesus Christ.”

“The victory of peace is ultimately the victory over Satan who, since the sin of our First Parents, never ceases to tempt us to commit sin,” Burke said. “It is the victory worked by God the Father through the Redemptive Incarnation of His only-begotten Son. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, is the privileged instrument through which God the Father sent God the Son into the world to win for us the victory.”

Alpha News reported on Cardinal Burke’s prior improvement in the hospital in late August. He had been receiving medical care beginning Aug. 10 and soon ended up on a ventilator in the ICU, staying in the hospital for almost one full month.

Upon his Sept. 3 release, Burke began his “slow” but “steady” recovery process that he is still undergoing.

 

Evan Stambaugh

Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.