Vatican attempts to silence tradition-minded Catholic prelates

Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have been mentioned before on WWW. Both are on Pope Francis' fecal roster for speaking truth to power -- speaking publicly about the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church and promoting a return to traditional Catholicism. See, for example, "'How can we keep the Faith?'" in which Michael Matt introduces Bishop Schneider, one of the principal speakers at last year's Catholic Identity Conference.

Earlier in 2017, Cardinal Burke offered a traditional Pontifical Mass at the Chartres cathedral. And this summer he really crossed the line, offending the "lavender mafia" in the Vatican by giving an interview to Catholic Action in which he decried the "gay culture" in the Church.

The Holy [sic] Father would prefer that the prelates stopped airing the Church's dirty linens in public, so has instructed the Vatican Secretariat of State to take steps to silence them. In his blog Stilum Curiae, Italian journalist Marco Tosatti reports that American bishops have been "advised" by the Secretary of State ("Peter the Roman") not to invite Cardinal Burke to speak in their dioceses.

Bishop Schneider, a star speaker at traditional Catholic gatherings in the USA and elsewhere, has been told not to leave his own country, Kazakhstan -- he is the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana -- without first notifying the Vatican. One doesn't have to think hard to imagine what the Vatican would say upon receiving such notice.

Sgr Tosatti's article is written in Italian. The directives from the Secretariat of State may have been in Latin but more likely were in Italian. My grasp of Italian is pretty tenuous [Si? Ed.] but I can make an educated guess as to what the Vatican is sayingto Bishop Schneider and Cardinal Burke, to wit: "Eh, shadappa you face!"