Rocco Palmo highlights Archbishop Burke's latest speech on the responsibilities of Catholics in the public square. As Rocco notes, the talk seems to be a direct response to Cardinal Sean O'Malley's defense of his decision to give a public funeral to Ted Kennedy, and Cardinal McCarrick's decision to preside over the burial service.Taken together, O"Malley's and Burke's talks seem to outline the state of the debate.. Nonetheless, I was troubled by one particular aspect of Burke's speech, which struck me as going further rhetorically than he has gone before.If there has always been the danger of giving scandal to others by public and seriously sinful actions or failures to act, that danger is heightened in our own time. Because of the confusion about the moral law, which is found in public discourse, in general, and is even embodied in laws and judicial pronouncements, the Christian is held to an even higher standard of clarity in enunciating and upholding the moral law. It is particularly insidious that our society which is so profoundly confused about the most basic goods also believes that scandal is a thing of the past. One sees the hand of the Father of Lies at work in the disregard for the situation of scandal or in the ridicule and even censure of those who experience scandal. (emphasis added).Am I wrong, or is Burke here implying that McCarrick and O"Malley were influenced by the Devil himself in making the decisions they made? If so, this strikes me as quite a new level of accusation by one brother bishop to another. Maybe not absolutely, as my friends who study early Church history tell me. But quite new for us.

Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor in the Theology Department and Law School at Boston College.

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