Pope Francis is evicting a US cardinal from his Vatican-subsidised apartment and stripping away his retirement salary, according to a new report.
Raymond Burke, an American cardinal, has been a vocal critic of Pope Francis since his installation as the head of the Roman Catholic church in 2013. His complaints largely centred on claims that Pope Francis, known for his relative progressivism, was diluting the church's doctrine.
The Pope had taken some steps to put the rogue cardinal in place. Mr Burke was demoted and his influence diminished within the hierarchy of the church. Now Francis has moved to kicking the cardinal out of his house, according to a source speaking to The New York Times.
The news first broke in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, an Italian newspaper with ties to Mr Burke and which recently sponsored a conference in which the cardinal criticised a major meeting of bishops the Pope had convened.
The report comes on the heels of another removal — that of conservative American Bishop Joseph Strickland of Texas.
“If this is accurate, it is an atrocity that must be opposed,” Mr Strickland said in a post on X/Twitter on Monday. “If it is false information it needs to be corrected immediately.”
Since then, the information has not been adjusted or denied by the Vatican.
Matteo Bruni, the Vatican's spokesman, refused to confirm or deny the report to journalists, saying he did not "have anything particular to say" about the possible eviction.
An unnamed source speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that Pope Francis wanted Mr Burke removed because his criticism had become a source of "disunity" within the Church. Another source told the Associated Press that the cardinal's privileges were being stripped because he was using them to campaign against the church.
While conservative members of the church, like Mr Strickland, have denounced the Vatican's actions, supporters of Pope Francis have said the leader has spent the better part of a decade responding to Mr Burke's attacks with patience, according to the Times report.
Mr Burke does not see himself as a divider, but as a protector of Church orthodoxy from what he describes as "confusion, error, and division" wrought by Pope Francis.
One of the central issues of concern to Mr Burke and his ilk is a proposal that would allow the Church to bless same-sex unions.
Mr Burke called it a "harmful goal" during a recent conference, and said it was one intended to force the agenda of LGBT+ groups and secular ideas onto the Church.
“It’s unfortunately very clear that the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the part of some has as its aim to push forward an agenda that is more political and human than ecclesiastical and divine,” he said during the event.
Mr Burke — who was a favoured cardinal of the more conservative Pope Benedict XVI — did not just clash with Pope Francis on major doctrinal decisions. He even had remarks about the Pope's choice in ritual vestments, with one report claiming he had asked Vatican officials to request that the Pope "tone it down a bit."
