His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke, one of the leading conservative prelates in the Catholic Church, has contracted the coronavirus.
Although a tweet published on Burke’s Twitter account earlier this week said doctors were “encouraged by his progress,” a large number of media outlets have confirmed that he has been placed on a ventilator in recent days, and that his condition is “critical.”
“The cardinal’s condition is deteriorating rapidly and is now very serious,” LifeSiteNews has reported.
“According to information I received,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan tweeted Tuesday, “Cardinal Burke’s state of health is very serious. We pray insistently for [his] healing.”
As if gleeful to report on Burke’s sickness, a variety of religious and secular news organizations ran headlines that seemed to suggest he deserved to catch the virus.
“Outspoken vaccine skeptic Cardinal Burke hospitalized with COVID after Wisconsin visit, on ventilator,” read an article from CBS’s Minneapolis-based affiliate WCCO.
“The Pope’s No. 1 American Nemesis — a COVID skeptic — is now fighting for his life,” reported The Daily Beast.
“Catholic cardinal who spread vaccine misinformation now on a ventilator battling COVID-19,” CBS said in another headline.
Dissident Catholic website National Catholic Reporter — which regularly advocates for pro-LGBT causes and for the ordination of women — published a tweet with similar language.
A message from the Twitter account of Cardinal Raymond Burke, a conservative prelate and outspoken skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, confirmed that he had been placed on a ventilator after testing positive for the virus. https://t.co/NmzxjTMdQy
— NCR (@NCRonline) August 16, 2021
In recent months, it’s become the norm for mainstream media outlets to publish stories on people who have resisted getting the COVID jab.
“He put off getting vaccinated. Now, he’s in the ICU pleading for others to avoid his mistake: ‘I messed up’,” read a Washington Post headline released earlier this month.
The New York Post published an article on August 9 titled, “Man loses unvaccinated brother, parents to COVID in same week.”
But instances of people being hospitalized and even dying after they’ve received the COVID jab have also occurred.
Young people across the United States have been reporting adverse heart-related reactions to the shot. Rarely do mainstream media outlets report on these incidents.
Former apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Mario Viganò, relayed a message to Catholic journalists across the world this week, asking the faithful to pray for the health of Cardinal Burke.
Please see here Archbishop Vigano's appeal regarding Cardinal Burke's condition: pic.twitter.com/yMjBUKeNZb
— Dr. Maike Hickson (@HicksonMaike) August 17, 2021
Stephen Kokx
Stephen Kokx, M.A., is a journalist for LifeSiteNews. He previously worked for the Archdiocese of Chicago under the late Francis Cardinal George. A former community college instructor, Stephen has written and spoken extensively about Catholic social teaching and politics. His essays have appeared in such outlets as Catholic Family News and CatholicVote.org.
