For banishment to the south seas?

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke (l.) next to Pope Francis © Paul Haring (KNA)

In earlier times, potentates liked to send inconvenient opponents into exile on distant islands. Not only in the age of the Internet and Twitter do spatial distances hardly matter anymore. And in order to push actual or alleged adversaries to the siding, there are more effective means than a permanent stay in the South Seas.

Only two-week stay in the South Seas

That Cardinal Raymond Burke has now been assigned to an abuse trial on Guam because they want to deport him from Rome – as Italian media suggest – sounds a bit specious. The U.S. cardinal, who is considered a spokesman for the conservative wing of the Church and the Pope's critics in the Vatican, will by no means have to spend the entire duration of the trial in the Western Pacific Mariana archipelago, as the "Messaggero" claimed on Thursday. His current stay – he landed on Guam on Wednesday after two stops – is limited to less than two weeks, after which he will return to Rome.

As Vatican spokesman Greg Burke now confirmed, the appointment of the cardinal to preside over the trial against the accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agana already took place last 5. October. He was commissioned by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for cases of abuse by clerics of minors. According to the rule that in such a trial the judge should be hierarchically above the accused, a cardinal was thus sought for the presidency of the court. And since 68-year-old Burke was thought to have free time in his office as patron of Malta, he was entrusted with the delicate case. As an experienced canon lawyer – between 2008 and 2014, he was prefect of the Signatur, the highest church court – he also fit the profile perfectly.

Normal practice in such processes

At the trial of Apuron, who allegedly sexually abused several altar boys in the 1970s, Burke will be assisted by three other episcopal judges. He himself is now expected to conduct the main interviews of the victims and the accused. Further investigations have already been made by local church officials and will continue to do so after his departure. That corresponds absolutely to the practice with such processes, and it also worked satisfactorily, it is said in Rome. Further steps could be taken and arranged by Burke also from Rome. In principle, later questioning could also still be carried out by video circuit.

But it is not the first time that Vatican experts travel abroad for questioning in such trials. For example, Charles Scicluna, then an expert on abuse ies at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was in Mexico for the first investigations into the accusations against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008). He had been accused of abuse against seminarians.

Assignment came before Maltese spat

How and with what motives the nomination of Burke for the South Seas mission came about has not yet been revealed. He received the assignment before the dispute in the Order of Malta over Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager escalated publicly, eventually leading to the resignation of its Grand Master Matthew Festing. The role of the cardinal patron is unclear. But already for longer it rumbled in the tradition-rich order.

Wanted to take the cardinal out of the line of fire for a while by keeping him busy with another important task? That remains to be seen. Likewise, whether interference was to be prevented for the next weeks and months.

The investigations on Guam are not only about sexual abuse. Bishop Apuron, who has had a coadjutor with wide-ranging powers since last fall, has also been linked to administrative and financial irregularities. – But all these allegations must now be resolved by the judiciary, under authoritative guidance from the U.S. cardinal, before Pope Francis makes a final decision.