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Breaking: Pope Ousts Top Vatican Judge Known For Incendiary Anti-Gay Comments

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In one of the more explosive shakeups in the recent history of the Catholic Church, the second-most powerful man in the Vatican has been ousted.

American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a darling of conservative Catholics who is virulently anti-gay, has confirmed to BuzzFeed what rumors from Rome have said for weeks. He will be demoted by Pope Francis from the head of the Roman Catholic Church’s version of the Supreme Court to a figurehead role as the Patron of the Knights of Malta, a chivalrous order known for its work among the sick.

This is not the first demotion for Burke, who was dropped by Francis almost a year ago from an important Vatican bureau that selects bishops around the world. Burke was replaced on The Congregation for Bishops by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who, while also conservative, does not use the inflammatory rhetoric that has made Burke a favorite of the far-right in the Catholic Church.

Burke recently told an interviewer that legally-married gay and lesbian family members should be shunned from family celebrations during the upcoming holidays, asking “what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living [in] a disordered relationship with another person?”

LOOK: Conservative Leaders Push Catholic Church To Backtrack On Gays

Burke’s strong criticism of a preliminary document that included more inclusive welcoming of LGBT community members in the life of the Church and his challenge to Francis, who is seen to have had a hand in the drafting of the document, were apparently the last straw for the Pope.

Francis recently replaced outspoken Chicago Cardinal Francis George with the more conciliatory Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Washington, a major promotion for the 65-year-old native of Omaha, Nebraska. Admittedly, George was two-and-a-half years beyond the age of 75, when bishops and cardinals submit their resignations to the pope. However, some cardinals have been kept on the job until age 80 when they lose their right to vote in the conclave that selects a new pope after the death or resignation of the reigning pontiff.

These moves are thought by Vatican watchers to be signs that Francis wants to tone down the attacks on communities that are marginalized by the Catholic Church, including LGBT parishioners and divorced and pro-choice Catholics. Burke is a major proponent of the Latin Mass and is known for his fondness of clerical garb that went out of style following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which attempted to modernize the Church in worship and its relationship to Jews and to other Christian faiths. Burke opposes those reforms and his move to Rome from St. Louis, where he served as archbishop, was seen as a sign of favor by the ultra-conservative Pope Benedict XVI.

Burke’s influence on the Congregation for Bishops was seen in the naming of several controversial choices in major positions in the American Catholic Church, including Salvatore Cordileone, the Church’s leader in the successful Prop 8 movement that reversed marriage equality in California, from Oakland to San Francisco, an obvious thumb in the eye of the large LGBT community there.

In Chicago, Cupich will take over from George in November. While, for example, Cupich opposes marriage equality, in Spokane he is one of the rare U.S. Church leaders to speak out against attempts “to incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.” Cupich wrote in a pastoral letter that was read in all Catholic parishes in the diocese, “It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs.”

The first major appointment of an American Archbishop tipped Francis’ hand as to how he wanted a change of tone among the hierarchy in the U.S. He named the affable Bishop Bernard Hebda, who had served as head of the diocese of Gaylord, Michigan for only four years, to be co-adjutor bishop with right of succession to the authoritarian and controversial Newark Archbishop John Myers, in 2016 when Myers turns 75.

How long Francis will have to change the leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church remains to be seen, as the vast majority of current ecclesial office-holders were appointed by conservatives John Paul II and Benedict XVI over a 35-year period. In his initial choices, Francis is veering slightly left in tenor. However, it is doubtful that any change in doctrine will be put in place during the remaining years of his pontificate.

 

Image via Wikimedia

 

Related At The New Civil Rights Movement:

Vatican Changes Actual Translation Of Draft That ‘Welcomed’ Gays

More Popular Than Jesus? Pope Francis Just Made The Cover Of Rolling Stone.

American Bishops Thwart Pope Francis’ Attempt To Survey Catholic Public Opinion

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‘Good Citizenship’: Indiana GOP Bill Pushes Marriage Before Kids Lessons

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February 5, 2026

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Indiana Republicans are pushing controversial “good citizenship” legislation that would require educators to teach students they should have children only after getting married. Critics warn that bringing these lessons into classrooms could stigmatize students from single-parent or unmarried households.

The legislation, Senate Bill 88, also promotes high school completion, full-time employment, and marriage as parts of being a good citizen, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

The bill’s author, Indiana Republican State Senator Gary Byrne, “described the proposed additions as an expansion of the ‘Success Sequence,’ a three-pronged theory designed to help young adults avoid poverty and enter the middle class.”

“The Success Sequence outlines three simple steps that researchers have consistently shown helps individuals to avoid poverty,” Byrne said.

READ MORE: Trump Turns National Prayer Breakfast Into Partisan Hit on Democrats of Faith

Byrne cited research from the Brookings Institution and from a conservative think tank, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), which describes such instruction as “a proven formula to help young adults succeed in America.”

“The data is striking,” Byrne said. “More than half the people who complete none of these three steps live in poverty. Among those who complete all three, the numbers dropped to just 3% that would live in poverty.”

NBC News reported that “not everyone shares excitement over the success sequence — which may come across as innocuous advice, but detractors say is built upon dubious data, overlooks racial disparities and shames students who are raised in single-parent households.”

A Brookings Institution paper reported that “While the analysis cannot prove that following these norms causes income to increase, we find that the likelihood of being poor when following all three rules is extremely low.” It also stated that “causation might easily run in the reverse direction.”

Democrats challenged Byrne’s legislation.

READ MORE: Another Georgia Republican Bails as Mike Johnson’s House Sees Even More Exits

Speaking to the proposed in-school instruction, Indiana Democratic Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder told the Indiana Capital Chronicle, “Waiting until marriage to begin having children — and there sits children, who knows the makeup of their homes — and I just don’t know how that creates a positive, encouraging or confidence-building environment for students in that classroom.”

“I just don’t think it’s necessary to begin instilling areas of judgment with students who are trying to do their very best in school and going home to their families that they love,” she added.

Leader Yoder told The Indiana Citizen that the legislation “stigmatizes how students view their own identity within their families.”

“She described the language as ‘fraught with shame’ and questioned whether it belongs in civics courses, adding that it sends a ‘complicated message’ about who qualifies as a good citizen.”

“The student sitting there is going, ‘Huh, my parents aren’t good citizens,’” Yoder told NBC News. “Questioning good citizenship because I was a surprise, or my mom got pregnant and had me before getting married or never got married.”

READ MORE: ‘We Don’t Have Much Time’: George Conway Issues Dire Warning About Donald Trump

 

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Trump Turns National Prayer Breakfast Into Partisan Hit on Democrats of Faith

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February 5, 2026

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After being introduced as the “Greatest of All Time,” President Donald Trump used his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast to launch a partisan attack on Democrats.

“I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat,” he told the largely conservative Christian audience. “I really don’t.”

“And I know we have some here today, and I don’t know why they’re here, because they certainly don’t give us their vote,” he complained.

Trump then turned his sights onto voter ID.

“I certainly know that we’re not gonna be convincing them to vote for a little thing called voter ID,” the president said of Democrats.

READ MORE: Another Georgia Republican Bails as Mike Johnson’s House Sees Even More Exits

“It polls at 97 percent,” he alleged. “And even the Democrats, the people, the voters, are at 82 percent for voter ID, but the leaders don’t want to approve it.”

“It’s polling at over 90 percent,” he claimed.

According to the Pew Research Center, majorities of both parties support voter ID, with an average of 81 percent.

Trump then attacked Democrats, alleging, “they cheat.”

He also praised himself, saying, “I’ve done more for religion than any other president,” and declared, “not too many presidents have done too much for religion.”

“They want to be neutral or against. You know, the Democrats are against” religion, he charged.

READ MORE: ‘We Don’t Have Much Time’: George Conway Issues Dire Warning About Donald Trump

 

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Another Georgia Republican Bails as Mike Johnson’s House Sees Even More Exits

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February 4, 2026

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Another prominent House Republican from Georgia will retire, adding to the mass exodus Speaker Mike Johnson is seeing under his leadership.

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election. Loudermilk was first elected to Congress in 2014. He is the fourth Georgia Republican not seeking re-election, and joins (former) U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), and U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA).

Loudermilk become the thirtieth House Republican to retire or seek a different office, according to the U.S. House Casualty List.

Last week, Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman reported: “Today, we only see 18 out of 435 races as toss-ups, but Republicans would need to win two-thirds of the toss-up column to hold their House majority.”

He suggested that Democrats are “modest favorites” to regain the House majority.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s margin over House Democrats is so thin that he directed Republican lawmakers to “take vitamins” in January.

According to Politico, “Republicans will expect to retain Loudermilk’s seat in suburban Atlanta in November, which he won by 34 points in 2024.”

Image via Reuters

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