MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal who eschewed the COVID-19 vaccine mentioned he’ll quickly begin rehabilitation after contracting the coronavirus and spending days on a ventilator.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, 73, one of many church’s most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, tweeted Aug. 10 that he had contracted the virus. He was sedated and positioned on a ventilator at an undisclosed hospital. His employees tweeted Aug. 21 that he had been taken off the ventilator and transferred out of intensive care to an everyday room.
Burke tweeted a letter Saturday during which he thanked God for bringing him “to this point of healing and recovery.” He mentioned he stays within the hospital and may’t reply to particular person well-wishers as a result of he is about to begin “intensive rehabilitation” and might be going by means of an “extended period of convalescence.”
“In your charity, I know you will understand this circumstance and accept that I must preserve my energy so that I can recover my health and strength,” Burke wrote. “Since Divine Providence has governed that I remain hospitalized for the present, I now reaffirm that same episcopal conviction: suffering, united with the suffering of Jesus Christ, is truly efficacious in His Divine Plan for our salvation when accepted willingly and wholeheartedly.”
He did not elaborate on his situation or what rehabilitation will entail.
Burke served as bishop within the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin earlier than turning into archbishop in St. Louis. He left St. Louis in 2008 to oversee the Vatican’s supreme court docket, turning into the primary American to maintain that place.
He has constructed a repute as an outspoken conservative. He drew consideration in 2004 when he mentioned he wouldn’t give Holy Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as a result of Kerry helps abortion rights. In 2009 he chastised the University of Notre Dame over plans to give then-President Barack Obama an honorary diploma as a result of Obama, too, helps abortion rights.
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Pope Francis moved Burke out of the Vatican court docket in 2014 after Burke mentioned the church was like a ship with no rudder.
Burke has been on the assault in opposition to Francis since then. He joined three different conservative cardinals in formally asking the pope in 2016 to clarify why he determined to let remarried Catholics obtain Holy Communion.
Burke additionally has warned those that governments have been utilizing worry of the pandemic to manipulate individuals. He spoke out in opposition to obligatory vaccinations in May 2020, and mentioned some in society need to implant microchips in individuals. He has mentioned the very best weapon for preventing the virus is Jesus Christ.
