Cardinal Burke Denounces Fake Videos Claiming He Rebuked Pope Leo XIV
The fabricated online videos, which have now been taken down, were circulated on social media.
Cardinal Raymond Burke has decried “fake videos and images circulating online” that claim he had rebuked Pope Leo XIV’s teaching and governance.
In a video statement posted on social media on Oct. 21, the cardinal declared his full support for the Holy Father and said the videos, which have since been removed, were the work of the devil, gravely sinful, and aimed at sowing division.
“These videos are fabrications — works of deceit produced through technological manipulation of my image to convey messages I have never delivered,” Cardinal Burke said.
The assertions were “entirely false,” he continued, adding that he had “made no such statements,” nor had he “given any address or interview even remotely resembling what is being described.”
The cardinal said the “deliberate use of falsehood to sow division within the Church is gravely sinful.”
Quoting the Gospel of John, he added: “Our Lord himself teaches that the devil ‘was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’”
The cardinal said the fake videos “bear the unmistakable mark of the evil one, who ever seeks to confuse the faithful and to set brother against brother within the Mystical Body of Christ.”
He went on to declare “publicly and unequivocally” his “obedience, filial love and unwavering respect for the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, the Vicar of Christ on earth.” The prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura added that the unity of the Church around the Successor of St. Peter “is willed by Our Lord himself and is essential to the integrity of our Catholic faith.”
He urged all the faithful to give “attentive heed to the authentic teaching of the Holy Father and not to the voices of division, which distort the truth for worldly purposes and sow the seeds of scandal among souls.”
The American cardinal urged the faithful to respond to such attacks with “faith and prayer,” adding that the Christian’s “first recourse in every trial is always to the Heart of Jesus, who conquers falsehood by the power of his truth and love.”
He ended his statement by asking the faithful to “pray earnestly” for the person or persons behind the video so that, “touched by divine grace, they may turn from darkness to the light of truth, from the bondage of lies to the freedom of conversion, and be reconciled to God, who is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love.”
Cardinal Burke and other Church leaders who had been publicly critical of some of Pope Francis’ actions have recently come under fire from a few online commentators for being silent in the face of Leo XIV’s words and actions that these critics say are merely a continuation of Francis’ pontificate.
In June, Pope Leo wrote a warm and detailed letter to Cardinal Burke, thanking him for 50 years of priestly ministry, and in August, the Pope received the cardinal in a private audience.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
