Cardinal Raymond Burke, a staunch conservative in the US Catholic church who has emerged as a leading critic of Pope Francis and a vaccine skeptic, was placed on a ventilator just days after testing positive for Covid-19. The 73-year-old, who has frequently been seen maskless in Rome, where he lives, tested positive last Wednesday while visiting Wisconsin. Cardinal Burke has not said if he has been vaccinated. The former archbishop of St Louis was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 but demoted from a senior Vatican position by Pope Francis in 2014. In 2015, Burke said the Catholic church had developed an increasingly “feminized environment”, saying: “Men are often reluctant to become active in the Church.

Source: The Guardian August 16, 2021 14:26 UTC