Gift by Rota Judge, Msgr. Cormac Burke
- Posted by Mary's Advocates
- On April 24, 2023
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I had to chuckle recently because I suspect that deceased Msgr. Cormac Burke is sending some guardian angels to help Mary’s Advocates (May he rest in eternal peace!). Msgr. Burke was a judge at the Roman Rota from 1987 to 1999, and when I started doing my research about the flood of annulments issued by the American Tribunals, I used his website as a resource. He was very pro-marriage. However, eventually, the website was no longer maintained. Only someone savvy with finding archive webpages could find Msgr. Burkes’ publicly, freely, shared documents.
Shown above is the photo I have of Msgr. Cormac Burke on the wall in front of my desk. I keep pictures of several of my favorite clerics taped to the wall. A couple weeks ago, his photo fell down and I had to fish between the tangle of wires under my desktop to rescue him. Then, several days later, I was contacted by a new person who found Mary’s Advocates website and this person gave me a 660 page collection of Decrees and Sentences by Rota judge Cormac Burke (linked here).
One of my favorite writing by Msgr. C. Burke is his rebuttal against those who say the “good of the spouses” is demonstrated by two satisfied married parties. Msg. Burke says something very different:
As regards the reneging spouse, certainly the marriage would scarcely seem capable of working any longer toward his or her “good”. Yet it can still work powerfully for the good of the other, if he or she remains true to the marriage bond. If that fidelity is maintained, moreover, it may in God’s providence act as a call to repentance, as a force of salvation, for the unfaithful spouse, perhaps in his or her very last moment on earth – when one’s definitive “bonum” is about to be decided (from The Object of Matrimonial Consent: A Personalist Analysis, here)
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