When Archbishop Raymond Burke was promoted to the Vatican curia and left the archdiocese of Saint Louis where he had made waves insisting that the Church’s stand on abortion really means what it says, there were some who said his transfer was not just a promotion but also Rome’s way of removing a pesky prelate who antagonized political minions of the U.S.’s relativist culture. For an outspoken bishop, being promoted to a high office in the stratosphere of the Vatican can be analogous to what happened to New York Judge Joseph Force Crater who hopped in a taxi on the night of August 6, 1930 and was never seen again…becoming a “cause celebre” as the “missing-est man in the nation” prompting the line with standup comedians “Judge Crater, call your office!”

I confess I was one who thought Burke was slated for a future of ecclesial anonymity along with a red hat in the dusty caverns of Rome. And, frankly, I’m still not sure that the feisty bishop WASN’T kicked upstairs—because he was a glorious beacon to us authenticist Catholics—vowing not to give Holy Communion to Catholic pols of both parties who rise above principle to espouse abortion and trade on their churchly heritage. He had the guts to challenge a popular coach at Saint Louis University who was a scandal to his young charges by saying they could forget the moral code on the hideous practice. He condemned the appearance of folk-singer Sheryl Crow at a benefit for a Catholic children’s hospital in Saint Louis and refused to attend the event. While a good many others cower under their red hats and grip their miters with trembling hands at the thought of controversy, Burke served as a leading light for all of us who glory in the heritage of discipline from the pulpit.

So when Burke was “promoted” to Rome as head of the Vatican’s version of the U. S. Supreme Court, the “Apostolic Segnatura”—an institution vastly more complex—we understood he wanted the promotion since as a superb canon lawyer he seems to have been born for the job…but we still wondered why of all people HE was chosen now just as he was getting his feet wet dispensing a welcomed authority in Saint Louis.

That question still remains to be answered—and probably won’t until we see the caliber of his replacement in Saint Louis—but happily last week Burke made waves that rolled from the Vatican to the shores of these United States. He was asked in an interview with the publication “Avvenire,” the publication of the Italian bishops’ conference, to comment on the fact that Crow entertained at the Democratic National convention.

He answered: “That does not surprise me much. At this point, the Democratic party risks transforming itself definitely into a “party of death’ because of the choices on bioethical questions as Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in his book ‘The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.’” Burke added: The Democratic party once was “the party that helped our immigrant parents and grandparents better integrate and prosper in American society—but it is not the same anymore.” He expressed the view that more U.S. bishops are coming around to hnbis view on barring pro-abortion Catholic pols from Communion, which was once seen as a distinctly minority opinion.

Burke is right that other bishops are slowly coming around. A sample of prelate’s statements on the significance of abortion in this presidential election has been cited often. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition [as to when life begins]” a host of bishops issued rebuttals including New York Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley of Denver as well as Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop William Lori, chairman of the U. S. bishops’ pro-life and doctrine committees. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas has spelled out the reasons why the so-called “Catholic” Democratic Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius (the daughter of pro-abort John Gilligan who was governor of Ohio) should not be entitled to receive Communion.

The Burkean view and the actions of other bishops against his favorite liberal Democrats will be viewed with disfavor by Fr. Andrew Greeley weekly columnist for “The Chicago Sun-Times.” Greeley who trades on his photo where he is wearing a clerical collar has been long a faithful lip-synch mouthpiece for the Democratic party, touting the candidacy of Barack Obama who four-times as a state senator killed the Illinois version of “Born Alive,” which would guarantee medical care for infants born from a botched abortion. Thus Obama is the first presidential nominee to have not only espoused but to have legislative blood on his hands by killing a bill that would relieve dying infants born outside the womb from pain—opposing the measure because…as a Harvard lawyer (along with his wife another Harvard lawyer) if you please…he fancies it would threaten “Roe v. Wade”—a point on which he has been in disagreement with the great majority of pro-aborts in the U.S. Senate who passed an identical bill prior to Obama’s joining that body. Fr. Greeley says decorously his role as a priest forbids him to endorse anybody for office but has called Obama in his column “my guy.” The self-same Greeley wore a golden saxophone proudly on his black clerical jacket emblematic that he had maxed out to Bill Clinton.

To the biblical injunction that one cannot serve both God and mammon, Fr. Greeley now finds himself roughly in the same position as Jack Benny did in a skit on his late popular radio show. Self-publicizing himself as a skinflint, Benny was characterized walking down a dark street one night when he was approached by a robber who stuck a gun in his ribs and rasped: “Your money or your life!” There followed a long, painful silence. The robber repeated: “I said, buddy, YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!” To which Benny shouted—“I’M THINKING! I’M THINKING!” At his current age, over 80, Fr. Greeley has thus far avoided making the choice between God and mammon—mammon benefiting as he evades the argument. But in the immortal imagery of Francis Thompson’s poetic masterpiece “The Hound of Heaven,” Greeley may hear galloping footsteps coming near to him as he coasts into agedness. As one who is Greeley’s identical age, I advise him to cup a hand to his ear and listen closely.

To-wit: When the time comes to meet the Just Judge, Greeley will likely surround himself with all the accoutrements of the Church’s traditions he has so scornfully dissed including incense burners as he strives to get things his way. The man who once wrote during the last papal conclave that the Holy Spirit has proved Itself fallible by having fingered so many sinful popes…neglecting to point out what we learned from the Baltimore Catechism that infallibility is the preventative to teach error in faith and morals only… will have to surpass all the skills he has shown as an earthly communicator to justify these words and the long-long record of partisanship in behalf of pro-abortion Democratic politics.

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Thomas F. Roeser is chairman of the editorial board of The Chicago Daily Observer.