by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Here I present my English translation of the discourse. But as an introduction, I first want to point out how Catholic News Agency has twisted the words of the Cardinal to make him appear to support Bergoglio’s agenda in the Church.

First, the report from CNA:

In this report, Catholic News Agency has shown where it stands in the present crisis when it published the above article yesterday, which attempted to make everything think that Cardinal Burke agrees with Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s modernism. Let’s take a look at two quotes to see the game that CNA is playing.

Cardinal Burke: “The five dubia deal exclusively with the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church, not a pope’s agenda.”

CNA: “The dubia were not meant as an attack on the pope, Cardinal Burke says”

Cardinal Burke: “The Church has never taught that the Roman pontiff has a special power to constitute his own doctrine. The Holy Father is the first teacher of the deposit of faith, which is in itself always alive and dynamic,” he said.

CNA: Burke said master, not teacher.

For those who want to know the truth, here is what the Cardinal actually said, in Italian:

But for those who cannot read Italian, FromRome.info presents its own English translation. I will be updating this post in coming days as I have time to do the translation by hand (no Google bot version):

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Cardinal Raymond Burke’s Discourse

Given at the Conference “Torre di Babylonia” at Rome on Monday afternoon, Oct. 2, 2023

First of all, I would like to thank the organizers of this Convention, in particular Riccardo Cascioli, and all the collaborators with Nuova Bussola Quotidiana per having given us today the possibility of treating of themes of the greatest importance for us all, because they touch upon the most fundamental Good of our common Holy Mother, the Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, Who is the only Savior of the World. I would like to thank in particular Father Gerald Murray and professor Stefano Fontana for their essential considerations which they presented today. They have expounded in a very convincing manner – I should say, “unmasked” – the philosophical, canonical and theological errors which are very common today in regard to the Synod of Bishops and its imminent session entitled, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission”.

I would next like to recommend to your reading the book of Julio Loredo and José Antonio Ureta, “Processo sinodale: Un Vaso di Pandora – 100 domande e 100 risposte” (ed. Associazione Tradizione Famiglia Proprieta’, Rome 2023), which is available in Italian and in many other languages (“Synodal Process: A Pandora’s Box – 100 questions & 100 answers). The serene and profound study which underlies this book is a most precious help to confront the pervasive confusion inside this meeting of the Synod of Bishops which will begin tommorrow (ed. Oct. 4, 2023).

Professor Fontana has said that: “The new synodality, considered in its own categories of time, praxis and procedure, is the conclusive moment of a long process which has spanned all of modernity.” Turning our attention to the philosophical sources of this so-called “synodality”, he has unmakes its own worldliness. This is why Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the our only Savior, is not at the roots nor at the center of “synodality”. This is why the divine nature of the Church in Her foundation and in Her organic and long life have been omitted and, in truth, forgotten.”

The Holy Spirit has often been invoked in the days before the Synod. The entire synodal process is presented as a work of the Holy Spirit Who will guide all the members of the Synod, but there is not even a word about the due obedience to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit which are always coherent with the truth of the perennial doctine and the goodness of the perennial discipline which He has inspired throughout the ages. It is, unfortunately, very clear that the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the part of some has the scope of advancing an agenda which is more political and human than ecclesial and divine. The agenda of the Church is unique, that is, the search for the common Good of the Church, which is the salvation of souls, the salus animarum which “in the Church always ought to be the supreme law”. [1]

The Synod on “synodality” is following some of the common propectives in the Church today and those evidenced even in the recent reform of the Roman Curia treated in the Apostolic Constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium”. This insisted principally in indicating the missionarity and the synodality of the Church as “attributes”, “essential traits” [2] of ecclesial life and seems to derive from this imposition the structure of the Roman Curia. But, as we profess in the Creed and as has been taught by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Faith, “Lumen Gentium”, Holy Mother Church is in her attributes, in her essential traits, “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic”. [3]
The confusion on theology, on morals and even on elementary philosophy in which we are living is feed by a great lack of clarity in the terminology utilized, and this is probably intentional on the part of some. We are witnesses of a semantic shuffling of certain words and expressions, which renders incomprehensible the teaching of the Church on several points. I could cite the expression, “mercy of God” as one example. But at times there is being introduced or exaggerated new words without any clear definition, as in the case of the word, “synodality”. In this case, the confusion on the essential traits of the Church, there is the risk of losing the identity of the Church, our identity as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, as branches in the “True Vine”, Which is Christ and of which the Eternal Father “is the vine-dresser”. [4].

In the moment in which these concepts become central and are not clearly defined, a door opens to whoever would want to interpret them in such a manner as to break with the constant teaching of the Church on these matter. In fact, the history of the Church teaches us that the resolution of the worst crises, such as the Arian one, began always with a greats precision in the terms and concepts employed.

Let us return to the essential traits of the Church proposed in “Praedicate Evangelium” to understand better in what direction the Synod is tending: missionarity and synodality. One treats of two attributes in some recognized sense, but their elevation to essential traits of the Church and, therefore, to fundamental criteria for the restructuring of the Roman Curia – and now with this Synod for the whole Church – is presented with ambiguity and equivocation which needs to be recognized and cleared up.

It is just to affirm that the entire Church is missionary. All the faithful are called, according to their vocation and their personal baptismal gifts, to give testimony to Christ in the world. But in giving testimony to Christ, the faithful need to encounter Him living in the Church by means of Sacred Tradition, which is doctrinal, liturgical and disciplinary. They need good Pastors – the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops in communion with Him, together with the priests, the principal cooperators with the Bishops – to guide them to Christ and to safeguard them for their life in Christ, especially by means of the teaching of sane doctrine and of good morals, and, in the most perfect and complete manner, through the Sacred Liturgy as an adoration of God “in spirit and truth”. [5]. It is, in fact, the teaching of the truth and the Divine Worship “in spirit and truth” which makes the life of Christ grow in every faithful and in the whole Church. As Saint Paul teaches us, in the Church we are no longer “children prey to waves, moved here and there by whatever wind of doctrine, deceived by men with this cleverness which is drawn from error”, but “acting according to truth in charity, we seek to grow in every thing by tending towards Him, who is the Head, Christ” [6].

According to the constant teaching of the Church, Christ institute the Petrine Office so that all the Bishops and, in this way, all the faithful, might be united in the Faith [7]. The Second Vatican Council, in her dogmatic Constitution on the Church, declared: “So that the same episcopate be one and undivided, [Jesus Christ] placed at the head of the other apostles the Blessed Peter and in him established the principle and perpetual and visible foundation of the unity of her Faith and her communion” [8]. In this way, the Council defines the Petrine Office: “The Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both the Bishops and of the multitude of the Faithiful.” [9].

The Roman Curia is the principal instrument of the Roman Pontiff in his non-substitutable service to the universal Church. According to the words of the Fathers at the Council: “In the exercise of his supreme, full and immediate power over the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff avails himself of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, which, therefore, fulfill their munus in the name and authority of him, for the advantage of the (local) churches and the service of their sacred pastors” [10]. The Successor of St. Peter, by means of the Roman Curia, helps each of the Bishops to fulfill his fundamental service which the Council describes with these words: “All the Bishops, in fact, should promote and defend the unity of the Faith and the common discipline of the whole Church; instruct the faithful in love for the whole Mystical Body of Christ, especially for the members who are poor, suffering and for those who are persecuted in the cause of justice (cf. Matthew 5:10); and lastly, promote every common activity of the whole Church, especially in seeing that the Faith grow and rise for all men as the light of full truth” [11].

The missionarity of the Church is the fruit of this unity of doctrine, liturgy, and discipline; it is the fruit of Christ living in the Church, in the members of His Mystical Body of which He is the Head. It is Christ alone who is announced and preaches to all the nations so that the many be baptized in the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Behold the mission of the Church entrusted to Her by the Lord: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all which I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all days, even unto the end of the world.” [12].

The mission of Christ is anterior to every missionary activity, and to the treatment of missionarity. In fact, missionarity is only a manifestation of the living presence of Christ in the Church to make “disciples of all peoples”, the Christ who remains always living in the Church “even unto the end of the world”.

… to be completed bit by bit in coming days…

Oh, wait, Cardinal Burke has published his own translation here, below. He usually takes days to get his stuff published, but his team is prepared this time for battle.