Leonard Leo Pressuring the Nuncio to Pressure Bishop Burke to be "quiet"?

According to Austin Ruse, the Nuncio is about to get pressure from Obama to shut Archbishop Burke up.

A few days ago Archbishop Burke gave an interview to the San Diego-based organization Catholic Action for Faith and Family, during which he took the gloves off about Sebelius, who has been nominated to head the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He noted her “public association with some of the more notorious agents of the culture of death.” This, of course, was a reference to her hosting a party for the late-term abortionist George Tiller, currently on trial in Kansas for nineteen infractions of abortion restrictions.

Burke commented on her fitness for office, saying that for Sebelius to be “placed in charge of the federal office with responsibilities for health and human services” is “sad for our nation” and a “source of great embarrassment.”

Burke closed the interview by issuing a challenge to his brother bishops, most notably Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.: “Every bishop is held to the same universal discipline which has been in force since the time of St. Paul the Apostle and is stated in canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.” And then this: “Whether Governor Sebelius is in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, or in any other diocese [italics mine], she should not present herself for Holy Communion because, after pastoral admonition, she obstinately persists in serious sin.”

You can see why the Obama administration might get upset about this. They played footsie with pet Catholics of left and right last year and thought they had this kind of problem covered, since some of them have already offered cover for Sebelius. Two groups created to offer such services, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance, started a petition drive saying Sebelius was really pro-life.

And now there is word that someone who is well known among Republicans, and who has served in previous Republican administrations, is reaching out on behalf of the Obama administration to get the Holy See to quiet Burke, or at least to make it clear he speaks not for the Church, but only for himself.

Democrats may say that Burke overstepped his bounds by commenting not just on Sebelius and Communion, but her fitness as a nominee for HHS secretary. IRS guidelines, which are even now being tested by the Alliance Defense Fund, say Church officials may not comment positively or negatively on candidates for federal office. But Sebelius is not running for federal office. She has been nominated to a cabinet post by the president. And beyond a mere technical question of IRS guidelines, since when are bishops required to shut up about public policy or to speak only for themselves?

But it’s not just questioning her fitness for office that offends Obama and his Catholics. They are also offended about Burke questioning Sebelius’s fidelity to the Catholic Church, for this strikes at the heart of their appeal to Catholics in the pews. Catholics who believe the Democratic answer to health care is more important than the murder of a million children a year desperately need the fiction that someone like Sebelius is a Catholic in good standing. Burke gives the lie to that assertion.

Does this explain this?

I thought this was really a peculiar meme from AB Burke.

I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I had trouble processing the context after years and years of speaking the truth about Canon 915.

There's a guy with a camera, doing an interview. You know he's going to use the interview. A week before the interview comes out, Archbishop Burke has his own interview about Canon 915 and issues a challenge to his fellow Bishops.

How did he think Terry was going to use it? Did he think we'd all be gathering in the underground catacombs to watch it?

Cardinal Burke's letter is a head scratcher, especially this:

“Fourth, I was never informed that the videotape would be used as part of a campaign of severe criticism of certain fellow bishops regarding the application of Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.

And he's been out in the public square talking about how Canon 915 isn't optional because.....? To....?

“I am deeply sorry for the confusion and hurt which the wrong use of the videotape has caused to anyone, particularly, to my brother bishops.”

I smell something and I smelled it way before reading Ruse's article.

Don't miss this:

n the course of a Q-and-A, Terry also said Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley had "done a great disservice to the Church" for failing to excommunicate Sen. John Kerry.

Speaking of which, there's not word one from any of these folks about the original author of that quote and his authoritative statements that Catholics can give out the phone number of the people he's hired to kill other people.

Nobody can answer whether it's Catholic doctrine.

A little screwy.

A lot screwy.

***UPDATE: My sources inform me that Ruse's anonymous Republican luminary putting pressure on Archbishop Burke for Obama, is Leonard Leo, former RNC Chairman. Leo, is famous for taking the RNC from success to the big tent wreck of an organization they have now.

Leonard Leo is also Chairman of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and, guess who's coming to breakfast.

In light of this information, Archbishop Burke's raking Randall Terry over the coals makes perfect sense. Leonard Leo and the Nuncio put him up to it on behalf of Obama.

Ruse's story should be written in past tense. It's already happened. Done. Accomplished.

Insufferable.