An awesome story regarding Cardinal Burke

Reader GM sent this to me and I thought it was well worth sharing.  From Vox Cantoris, a story regarding Cardinal Burke’s virtue and concern for souls:

A few years ago, I read a story on the Internet, which I can no longer find; it was written by a man that once suffered from same-sex attraction.

He wrote that he was outraged that then Bishop Burke of LaCrosse in Wisconsin would speak out firmly against sodomy. This man sent letters to the Bishop, hateful and spiteful letters. A few years later, he had a conversion to Christ and His Church. By then, Raymond Leo Burke was the Archbishop of St. Louis, in Missouri. The man that harassed him so many times sought him out in St. Louis and was surprised when the Archbishop accepted his request for a meeting. He came to the Archbishop and apologised. Archbishop Burke then went to a closet to retrieve a shoebox. Inside the shoebox were all the letters of harassment and hate that the man had sent to him. Archbishop Burke explained that he would regularly pray over the letters for the man and gave him back his letters with his blessing.

I have a personal friend that knows Cardinal Burke personally, I told him this story and his reply was, “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard that but I believe it because that is exactly the kind of thing that Cardinal Burke would do.”

I pray this story is true, if for no other reason than the benefit of the soul in question.

I don’t know if any of the current prelates in the Church have the kind of heroic sanctity that has been demonstrated by so many Saint-bishops of the past.  But among them all, at least insofar as we in the Anglosphere with our tendency to focus entirely on English-speaking prelates see things, I would have to say Cardinal Burke would be one of only a few I could imagine as being in that exalted class.  I’m certain he has his warts and has made many mistakes, but he has also been about as strong a defender of the Faith as we’ve seen in recent years.  But, I do have to say, for all his forthrightness and clarity with regard to Doctrine, he is probably only average or slightly above compared to the historical conduct of bishops going back centuries in the Church with regard to doctrinal defense. Reading defenses of Doctrine or exhortations to observe it from great Saint bishops of the past is generally mind-blowing in its depth, clarity, and force of reason.  Cardinal Burke is strong, but perhaps not quite to that level. To his credit, however, he does seem to have grown into the role over the past decade or so, and Cardinal Burke has emerged as perhaps the strongest friend of the TLM in high Church office.  I have no real idea of his personal practice of virtue, this anecdote aside, although it is reputed to be very strong.

At any rate, it appears Cardinal Burke and many more defenders of the Faith are going to be made to suffer real persecution for their beliefs.  May God bless and strengthen him and all those in high positions in the Church who cooperate with Grace by being true shepherds and not one of the large number of wolves in sheep’s clothing, or the even larger number of empty clerical suits.