2LT International News

LACROSSE, Wisconsin: Officials from the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, have announced that its founder, Roman Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, has been removed from a ventilator and is being moved out of intensive care.

Burke, 73, who is one of the Catholic Church’s most outspoken conservatives, as well as a vaccine skeptic who was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, will be moved to a regular room on Saturday at an undisclosed hospital, they added.

On 10th August, he tweeted he had contracted Covid.

Rev. Paul N. Check, Executive Director of the Shrine, said on Saturday, “His sister spoke with him on the phone this morning, and His Eminence expressed his deep gratitude for the many prayers offered on his behalf.”

Burke, who has a PhD in canon law, received sacraments from priests, and several relics were placed in his room, an earlier statement from the shrine confirmed.

He served as bishop at the Diocese of La Crosse before becoming the Archbishop of St. Louis, eventually leaving in 2008 to head the Vatican’s Supreme Court, as the first American to hold that position.

Burke, who has gained a reputation as an outspoken conservative, drew attention in 2004 when he refused to give Holy Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who supports abortion rights.

He also criticized the University of Notre Dame in 2009 over plans to award an honorary degree to then-President Barack Obama, who also supports abortion rights.

Since Pope Francis expelled him from the Vatican Court in 2014 after saying the church was like a rudderless ship, Burke has been a critic of the current Pope.

In 2016, he joined three other conservative cardinals in formally asking the Pope to explain why he allowed remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

Burke spoke out against mandatory vaccinations in May 2020 and accused governments of using fear of the pandemic to manipulate people, stressing that the best weapon against the virus is Jesus Christ.

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