Thomas McKenna: “It is beautiful to see how the faithful have rallied behind the Hierarchy….How does your Eminence comment on the union of solidarity of our bishops?”
Cardinal Burke: “Yes, I have received emails and other communications from lay faithful who say that they are supporting their bishops 100% and they have communicated to their bishops their gratitude and assured them that they want them to continue to be courageous and not to be deceived by any kind of false accommodations which in fact continue this same kind of agenda which sadly we have witnessed for too long in our country which is totally secular and therefore is anti-life and anti-family. I admire very much the courage of the bishops. At the same time I believe they would say it along with me that they are doing no more than their duty. A bishop has to protect his flock and when any individual or government attempts to force the flock to act against conscience in one of its most fundamental precepts then the bishops have to come to defend those who are entrusted to their pastoral care. So I am deeply grateful to all of the bishops who have spoken about this and who are encouraging the members of their flock to also speak up because our government needs to understand that what is being done with this mandate is contrary first of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of one’s conscience and at the same time contrary to the very foundation of our nation.”
Thomas McKenna: “So a Catholic employer, really getting down to it, he does not, or she does not provide this because that way they would be, in a sense, cooperating with the sin…the sin of contraception or the sin of providing a contraceptive that would abort a child, is this correct?”
Cardinal Burke: “This is correct. It is not only a matter of what we call “material cooperation” in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is materially providing for the contraception but it is also “formal cooperation” because he is knowingly and deliberately doing this, making this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”
(LSN/InfoCatólica) Preguntado por Thomas McKenna acerca de la unión entre los fieles y sus pastores para oponerse a los planes de la administración Obama, el cardenal Burke reconoce haber recibido "emails y cartas de fieles que afirman estar apoyando al 100 por cien a sus obispos, a quienes han comunicado su gratitud y asegurado que quieren que sigan siendo valientes y que no sean enagañados por ningún tipo de tentación acomodaticia".
El cardenal asegura que lo que está ocurriendo forma parte de "la misma agenda de la que tristemente hemos sigo testigos desde hace mucho tiempo en nuestro país, que es totalmente secular, antivida y antifamilia".
"Admiro mucho el coraje de los obispos", declara el purpurado, aunque advierte que "al mismo tiempo, creo que deberían de decir conmigo que no están haciendo otra cosa que cumplir con su deber. Un obispo tiene que proteger a su rebaño y cuando un individuo o un gobierno intentar forzar a sus fieles a actuar contra su conciencia en uno de los preceptos más fundamentales, entonces los obispos deben defender a aquellos que les han sido confiados a su cuidado pastoral".
"Por tanto", añade el cardenal, "estoy profundamente agradecido a todos los obispos que han hablado acerca del tema y que están exhortando a los miembros de su grey a alzar la voz, porque nuestro gobierno necesita entender que lo que está pasando con ese mandato es contrario al primero de todos los derechos fundamentales de los hombres, el derecho a la libertad de conciencia, y al mismo tiempo es contrario a la mismísima fundación de nuestra nación".
El cardenal Burke aclara que la contratación de seguros médicos que dan cobertura a tratamientos contrarios a la moral católica no consiste solo en una cooperación material con el mal sino que es una cooperación formal, porque quien lo hace sabe de sobra lo que está haciendo. "No hay manera de justificarlo. Simplemente está mal", sentencia el purpurado.
