Cardinal Raymond Burke has been placed on a ventilator as he battles COVID-19, according to a tweet on the cardinal’s Twitter account Saturday evening.
The tweet reported: “Cardinal Burke has been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and is being assisted by a ventilator.
“Doctors are encouraged by his progress. ”
His Eminence faithfully prayed the Rosary for those suffering from the virus. On this Vigil of the Assumption, let us now pray the Rosary for him.”
Burke, 73, is a former Vatican official who has expressed scepticism about the need for distancing measures to contain the coronavirus. He has also opposed mandatory vaccination schemes.
The cardinal did not say if he had recently been feeling ill or not, nor did he say whether he had been vaccinated for COVID-19.
A report Saturday in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Burke, who lives in Rome, became ill while visiting Wisconsin, where he was raised.
In previous remarks, sermons and speeches, Burke has raised concerns about how governments have handled the virus and vaccines. The tone of his messages echoed far-right conspiracy theories.
Burke said the virus “has been used by certain forces, inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda.”
“These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal’. This is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear,” said the cardinal.
In a May 2020 talk he delivered at the virtual Rome Life Forum, Burke spoke out against governments imposing vaccination mandates.
Burke also warned that some groups in modern society would suggest that “a kind of microchip needs to be placed under the skin of every person, so that at any moment he or she can be controlled by the state regarding health and about other matters which we can only imagine.”
In a March 2020 blog post, Cardinal Burke wrote, “In combating the evil of the coronavirus, our most effective weapon is, therefore, our relationship with Christ through prayer and penance, and devotions and sacred worship.
“We turn to Christ to deliver us from pestilence and from all harm, and He never fails to respond with pure and selfless love.”
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Additional readingNews category: World.