LA CROSSE, Wis. (CNS) – US Cardinal Raymond Burke said he is continuing steady progress in his recovery from Covid-19, but explained that it is slow going in a letter to supporters and friends.
In a letter dated September 25, the 73-year-old cardinal thanked people “with all my heart, for your faithful and generous prayers for the recovery of my health”.
Cardinal Burke wrote that he has continued to recover in a house near family members in Wisconsin since his release from the hospital on September 3. A native of Richland Center, Wisconsin, in the La Crosse Diocese, Cardinal Burke has not disclosed where he was hospitalised.
“The house is well adapted for the rehabilitation programme which I am following,” he wrote.
The cardinal explained that his priest secretary had arrived from Rome to assist with his rehabilitation.
“He is also helping me respond to correspondence and to deal with the many schedule changes necessitated by the time I was in the hospital, and now by the several weeks I will need to recover as fully as possible,” Cardinal Burke wrote.
“Although I am making steady progress, it is slow,” the letter continued. “The doctors and therapists who direct the programme of rehabilitation assure that it is necessarily so and that I am doing well.”
He said he was “trying to grow in patience” as he regains “certain fundamental physical skills needed for my daily living, and overcoming a general fatigue and difficulty in breathing”, which are typical reactions to those who are recovering from the airborne coronavirus that causes the illness.
Cardinal Burke added that he was unsure when he would be able to conduct normal activities.
In the letter, the cardinal also credited God for saving his life “for some work he wishes me to carry out”.
“I am determined to use the present time of rehabilitation in the best manner possible, so I will be prepared to carry out his work,” the letter said.
Cardinal Burke concluded the letter by asking for prayer for a full recovery, and said he also offered his “prayers and sufferings” for those who have been praying for him and for the world and the Catholic Church, “which are beset with so much confusion and error to the great and even mortal harm of many souls”.
The cardinal has not made it public knowledge on whether he was vaccinated for the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.
The Vatican had started offering all Vatican residents, retirees and employees the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in mid-January 2021. The cardinal was eligible for the vaccine as a member of the College of Cardinals and a member of the Apostolic Signatura, which he led as prefect from 2008 until his resignation in 2014.
Cardinal Burke has expressed concerns about the Covid-19 vaccines, including that it is “never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of the cell lines of aborted foetuses. The thought of the introduction of such a vaccine into one’s body is rightly abhorrent.”
He also said the “vaccination itself cannot be imposed, in a totalitarian manner, on citizens”.
In December, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, citing Church teaching, said that when alternative vaccines are not available, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines developed or tested using cell lines originating from aborted foetuses, in this case, including COVID-19 vaccines.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines did not use abortion-derived cell lines in developing or producing their vaccines, but they did in lab testing.
Photo: Cardinal Raymond Burke, wearing a protective mask, attends the Tenth March for Life in Rome on May 22, 2021 (CNS Photo)
Auckland is currently suffering through a Lockdown because of the Delta strain of the Covid 19 virus and Delta has ripped through the unvaccinated in the United States causing needless deaths and heartbreak. Why is it that in the midst of all that, NZ Catholic newspaper chooses to publish an international story about a United States Cardinal who has expressed concerns about the Covid 19 vaccines? Can you point me to the article published in the NZ Catholic during this Lockdown that shows your readers that New Zealand’s Bishops are urging Catholics in Aotearoa NZ to get vaccinated: http://get-vaccinated-catholic.co.nz/
I look forward to your response.