Raymond Burke is the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, basically the Chief Justice of the Catholic Supreme Court. Prior to his elevation to that position by Pope Benedict, he was the Archbishop of St. Louis.
You may remember him as the archbishop who said he would not offer Communion to John Kerry because of his pro-choice views; he also said that any Catholic supporting Kerry (or any pro-choice candidate) would be committing a "grave sin" and should not be allowed to receive Communion without first repenting of that sin.
In 2007, he raised a ruckus because Sheryl Crow, a supporter of women's rights, was giving a benefit concert for a children's hospital.
In short, he is a twisted, stupid man.
Last night, I attended the Planned Parenthood Living Legends Gala in Atlanta. The speaker, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spellman College and current curator of the Smithsonian's African-American art exhibit, made a point I find very important. In 2008, PP spent the vast majority of its money on providing birth control, offering health care to women who otherwise would not have any and educating teens on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
PP spent 3 percent of its money on providing abortions.
Raymond Burke has said that, "The Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,' because of its choices on bioethical questions, especially abortion."
And he recently criticized Obama for pushing an "anti-life, anti-family agenda."
This from a guy who has never been married and never had a child.
It is no accident that young people are less and less religious.
The author of a Harvard University study on religion and young people says that in the past two decades, "many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church.
Raymond Burke can thank himself and his brethren for that. And he can thank his small-minded, stupid self for the fact that I, a "Cradle Catholic," who stuck with the church until just a few years ago, no longer will set foot in the church of my birth.
Because these idiots, these so-called moral leaders, would rather the United States be led by a man who left his first wife because she was no longer pretty enough for a woman who was not only "pretty" but rich as Croesus and who could finance his political ambitions.