Pope Francis’ biggest critic, an anti-vaccine traditionalist papal lawyer who would be the first American pontiff, is among the frontrunners to replace him.
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 76, is diametrically opposed to the pope’s views on nearly all the contested issues facing the Catholic Church.
De-facto leader of the church’s conservatives, he is outspoken against any softening of its policy towards LGBTQ people, divorce, and the role of women.
Francis became so at odds with Burke that he stripped him of his role as head of the Catholic courts, the panel that chooses judges, and even his free Rome apartment.
As the pope’s health worsens amid a battle with pneumonia, Burke is likely the cardinal he would least want to see succeed him.
Cardinals are only eligible to vote or become pope until they turn 80, but though they are usually elected in their 60s, Francis himself was 76 when inaugurated, and his predecessor Benedict XVI was 78.
Burke was born in a rural town in Wisconsin, the youngest of the six children to Thomas and Marie Burke, both of Irish Catholic heritage.
He grew up on a dairy farm until his father was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1955 when he was in second grade.
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 76, is Pope Francis’ biggest critic, an anti-vaccine traditionalist papal lawyer who would be the first American pontiff, and among frontrunners to replace him
As Thomas Burke lay dying, he was regularly visited by a local priest to receive communion, which had a ‘tremendous impression’ on his son.
Burke joined the Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and served as a parish priest and high school teacher there after he was ordained in 1975.
His bishop then sent him to the Gregorian University in Rome to study canon law, which Burke admitted he at first wasn’t enthusiastic about.
That was until an older priest noticed how glum he was and took him under his wing. Burke became ‘hooked’ on canon law, and is now considered one of the foremost scholars of it.
Eventually he became Archbishop of St Louis in 2004 until 2008 when Benedict XVI called him to Rome to become the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – the church’s highest court.
Burke was made a cardinal two years later by the fellow conservative pontiff.
Increasingly prominent as a hardline traditionalist, Burke clashed with new reformist pope Francis within a year of him being inaugurated.
As the pope’s health worsens amid a battle with pneumonia, Burke is likely the cardinal he would least want to see succeed him
Francis in December 2013 declined to renew his membership of the Congregation of Bishops, a panel that helps the pope select new bishops.
‘One gets the impression, or it’s interpreted this way in the media, that he thinks we’re talking too much about abortion, too much about the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman,’ Burke responded.
‘But we can never talk enough about that.’
He was so incensed in October 2014 that the Vatican Synod on the Family conference proposed relaxing papal approach towards homosexuality, that he spoke out.
‘Many have expressed their concerns to me. At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder,’ he said.
‘They are feeling a bit seasick because they feel the church’s ship has lost its way.’
A preliminary report released from the confidential meeting revealed a proposal to sideline the ‘all or nothing’ attitude currently held by Catholics in respect of ‘irregular’ set-ups such as unmarried parents.
It added that there are ‘positive elements’ in gay relationships that have ‘gifts and qualities’ the Church should not reject.
Francis himself earlier that year also declared that Darwin’s theory of evolution does not contradict the belief that God created the universe, and when asked about gay marriage replied: ‘Who am I to judge?’
Burke, Archbishop of St. Louis, receives the cardinalitial ring from Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica on November 21, 2010
The pope responded by sacking Burke from the Supreme Tribunal and named him patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a largely ceremonial role, instead.
Francis at the time insisted he planned to make the change months earlier and he wasn’t punishing Burke, but the events were widely seen as connected.
Just three years later, Francis stripped Burke of all but his figurehead role at the Order over his plot to oust a senior official for authorizing a purchase of condoms for the people of Burma.
The pope sent a ‘special delegate’ to exercise the duties of the patron, and it was later confirmed Burke was ‘de facto suspended’.
Burke was outspoken in his condemnation of pedophile priests as the crisis engulfed the church, but repeatedly blamed it on feminism and homosexuality.
He in August 2015 claimed it was the fault of ‘radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s’.
Then in 2019 he and German Cardinal Walter Brandmueller claimed the ‘primary fault’ for the scandal was ‘the plague of the homosexual agenda’, not the priests themselves.
Burke claimed those priests who perpetrated abuse on children, ‘were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity’.
Burke (pictured at the Vatican in 2017) is diametrically opposed to the pope’s views on nearly all the contested issues facing the Catholic Church
Burke’s next major blowup with Pope Francis was in 2016 when he was one of four conservative cardinals to publicly challenge him on doctrine.
They sent Francis a set of ‘dubia’, or doubts, which they later made public when he failed to send a formal response.
At issue are some of the teachings in a 260-page treatise called ‘Amoris Laetitia’ (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis’ attempt to make the church more inclusive and less condemning.
Francis called for a church that was less strict and more compassionate towards any ‘imperfect’ members, such as those who divorced and remarried, saying ‘no one can be condemned forever’.
Under church law they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the church and therefore they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.
Francis appeared to side with progressives who proposed an ‘internal forum’ in which a priest or bishop decide jointly with the individual on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully reintegrated and receive communion.
Conservatives contested this and the four cardinals asked the pope to ‘resolve those doubts which are the cause of disorientation and confusion’.
A dubia is generally seen as a politely worded challenge to a pope’s words, to which the pontiff can choose to issue a ‘responda’ to clarify his position.
Burke hardened his stance after Francis didn’t respond, threatening to ‘formally correct’ the pope on multiple occasions.
‘It is something that is clearly quite rare. But if there is no response to these questions, then I would say that it would be a question of taking a formal act of correction of a serious error,’ he said.
He restated this in April 2018, insisting ‘As a matter of duty, the pope can be disobeyed’.
Burke attends Pope Francis address to members of the Vatican Roman Curia gathered in the Vatican Clementine Hall for the annual Christmas Greetings on December 21, 2017
Burke and fellow conservative Athanasius Schneider then published a retort of what they saw as errors in the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region agenda.
They wrote that it seemed ‘not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it’.
They claimed it included ‘implicit pantheism’ in its openness to pagan rituals by indigenous tribes, especially following Francis’ earlier statements that ‘diversity of religions’ was ‘willed by God’.
The pair also objected to what they claimed was support for married clergy and a greater role for women in the liturgy.
Burke made strong claims about the consequences of allowing women a greater role in the church – even girls serving as altar servers.
‘Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time,’ he said.
He claimed the church was being ‘feminized’ and that ‘radical feminism’ had ‘assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized’.
So too was Burke’s condemnation of same-sex marriage when the issue was being debated in the US, and he urged Catholics not to vote for any politician who supported it.
‘There is only one place these types of lies come from, namely Satan,’ he claimed.
‘It is a diabolical situation which is aimed at destroying individuals, families, and eventually our nation.’
Burke with thousands of people attended ‘National March for Life’, to reaffirm the yes to life and no to abortion and to euthanasia on May 18, 2019 in Rome
Burke was also an outspoken critic of Covid vaccines during the pandemic, as some of them used stem cell research in their development.
He even amplified the bizarre and debunked conspiracy theory that the vaccines contained microchips that allowed people to ‘be controlled by the state regarding health and about other matters which we can only imagine’.
Burke also falsely claimed the vaccine was a sinister plot to ‘advance their evil agenda’ to help along another conspiracy their, the ‘Great Reset’.
He later caught a serious case of Covid himself and was put on a ventilator for about a week, but eventually recovered.
One of the issues Francis and Burke are not at odds about is abortion, which Catholics widely condemn, but has criticized him for focusing more on other issues.
Burke went so far as to call for American bishops to deny communion to Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights, such as John Kerry and Joe Biden, whom he singled out.
He claimed not doing so ‘is weakening the faith of everyone. It’s giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion’.
Burke’s traditionalism extends to his insistence on using the Tridentine Mass, which dates to the 1500s and is delivered in Latin.
The most recent image of Burke, in a video posted to his social media pages earlier this month
Pope Francis attends a diocesan assembly at the basilica of Saint John Lateran, on October 25
Francis in 2021 restricted the circumstances in which it was allowed to be used, claiming it was a rallying point for traditionalist resistance to the modernizing changes of the 1962 Second Vatican Council.
Burke called the restrictions ‘severe and revolutionary’ and questioned the pope’s authority to issue them in a lengthy rebuttal.
Such traditionalist positions led to a kerfuffle when he was photographed wearing a galero, an outdated brimmed hat that cardinals used to wear.
Burke tried to clear this up to the National Catholic Register in 2015, saying it was a gift from the organizer of a conference on the liturgy he attended at a diocese in the south of Italy.
‘I have no idea where he got it from. I held it in my hand and obviously had no intention of wearing it regularly, but he asked me to put it on to take at least one photo,’ he said.
‘This was the only time I put that hat on my head, but, unfortunately, that picture has been published all over the world, and some use it to give the impression that I go around like that. But I’ve never worn it, not even for a ceremony.’
Both the pope and Burke have repeatedly insisted they don’t consider each other ‘enemies’, despite their frequent clashes.
Francis explicitly said ‘I do not see Cardinal Burke as an enemy’ in 2017 after the fallout from the previous year’s dubia.
The pope later denied a report that he called Burke an enemy during a meeting with Vatican department heads on November 20, 2023, to discuss his punishment for his latest criticism of the pope.
The previous month, he had again challenge Francis on blessings for same-sex couples and communion for divorced Catholics.
Burke’s traditionalist positions led to a kerfuffle when he was photographed wearing a galero, an outdated brimmed hat that cardinals used to wear
Francis responded this time, with a letter doubling down by partially revoking a ban on priests giving blessings to gay couples – ruling they could do so as long as they didn’t imply the relationship was equivalent to heterosexual marriage.
The meeting decided Burke had used his privileges against the church, and stripped him of his rent-free apartment in Rome, and €5,000 monthly stipend.
Burke vowed to remain in Rome even if he had to fork out for his own accommodation, but continued to deny Francis was his enemy.
‘It’s clear that the pope doesn’t want me in any leadership position, that he doesn’t see me as the kind of person he wants to be giving any strong direction to things,’ he told the New York Times.
‘But I’ve never had the impression that he thinks I’m his enemy.
‘When I saw what I judged to be harmful directions in the church, when I saw this whole discussion in the synod on the family calling into question the foundations of the church’s teaching on human sexuality, I had to speak up because it was my duty.’
Burke in the same interview tried to play down his association with Donald Trump ally, and staunch Catholic, Steve Bannon.
He served on the board of Bannon’s right-wing Catholic activist training group Dignitatis Humanae Institute, until he resigned in 2019 and cut ties with Bannon over his plan to make a film adaptation of In the Closet of the Vatican.
Burke said they only met three or four times ‘to discuss Catholic teaching’, as any priest would with ‘a member of the lay faithful’.
Catholics attend a rosary prayer for Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on February 24, 2025
Catholic faithful attend an outdoor mass for Pope Francis on February 24, 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and the first Pope chosen from the Americas
Who are the other candidates?
Burke is one of a handful of candidates from across the theological spectrum considered contenders to replace Francis if his illness proves fatal.
Francis’ death would summon all cardinals under 80, currently 138 of the 252, to The Vatican for conclave, where they are locked inside for about two or three weeks to choose a new pope.
The last conclave was in March 2013, when Francis was chosen after Benedict XVI resigned, the first to do so in 600 years, citing ill health.
Cardinals repeatedly vote in secret ballots in the Sistine Chapel until one candidate has at least two-thirds support, and accepts their nomination.
Pietro Parolin
Parolin, 70, as Vatican secretary of state, is the highest-ranking eligible cardinal as everyone ahead of him in precedence is too old to qualify.
The Italian has held the role since 2013 and is considered a moderate, between Francis’ liberal leanings and Burke’s traditionalism.
‘Everyone can contribute to peace, but solutions must never be pursued through unilateral impositions that risk trampling on the rights of entire peoples, otherwise, there will never be a just and lasting peace,’ he said in a recent interview.
Pietro Parolin, 70, as Vatican secretary of state, is the highest-ranking eligible cardinal as everyone ahead of him in precedence is too old to qualify
Peter Erdö
Burke and Erdö, 72, will likely split the conservative vote in early ballots as both are hardliners, and one will have to drop out and support the other.
Erdö, a Hungarian in the mold of his far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán, is such a hardliner he likened accepting refugees to human trafficking.
Like Burke, he is opposed to supporting same-sex couples, and believes marriage is insoluble without an annulment granted by the church, thus banning remarried Catholics from communion.
He was made a cardinal in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.
Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest Cardinal Peter Erdo (right) is such a hardliner he likened accepting refugees to human trafficking
Luis Antonio Tagle
Tagle, a Filipino cardinal, becoming pope would be another first for the office, as there has never been a pontiff from Asia.
He is the youngest of the favorites at 67 and thus could have a longer papacy than his competitors and leave a bigger mark on the church.
He is pro-prefect for the section of first evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization, one of the church’s departments.
Tagle is a liberal cardinal with similar views on contentious issues to Francis.
‘The harsh words that were used in the past to refer to gays and divorced and separated people, the unwed mothers etc, in the past they were quite severe,’ he wrote in 2015.
‘Many people who belonged to those groups were branded and that led to their isolation from the wider society.’
Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino cardinal, becoming pope would be another first for the office, as there has never been a pontiff from Asia
Matteo Zuppi
Zuppi, 69, would represent the strongest continuity between Francis as he is considered to be one of the pope’s favorites.
Only made a cardinal in 2019, the Italian was sent on a peace mission to Ukraine where he met president Volodymyr Zelensky, and with then-US president Joe Biden.
He appears to have liberal leanings like Francis and Tagle, and once referred to LGBTQ Catholics as ‘our LGBT brothers and sisters’.
Matteo Zuppi, 69, (left) would represent the strongest continuity between Francis as he is considered to be one of the pope’s favorites
