• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke attends the ordination of eight deacons from Rome's Pontifical North American College in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 1, 2020. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Cardinal Burke says recovery from COVID-19 will take several more weeks

September 27, 2021
By Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Coronavirus, Feature, News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

LA CROSSE, Wis. (CNS) — Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he is continuing steady progress in his recovery from COVID-19, but explained that it is slow going in a letter to supporters and friends.

In a letter dated Sept. 25, the 73-year-old cardinal thanked people “with all my heart, for your faithful and generous prayers for the recovery of my health.”

Cardinal Burke wrote that he has continued to recover in a house near family members in Wisconsin since his release from the hospital Sept. 3. A native of Richland Center, Wisconsin, in the La Crosse Diocese, Cardinal Burke has not disclosed where he was hospitalized.

“The house is well adapted for the rehabilitation program which I am following,” he wrote.

The cardinal explained that his priest secretary had arrived from Rome to assist with his rehabilitation.

“He is also helping me respond to correspondence and to deal with the many schedule changes necessitated by the time I was in the hospital and now by the several weeks I will need to recover as fully as possible,” Cardinal Burke wrote.

“Although I am making steady progress, it is slow,” the letter continued. “The doctors and therapists who direct the program of rehabilitation assure that it is necessarily so and that I am doing well.”

He said he was “trying to grow in patience” as he regains “certain fundamental physical skills needed for my daily living, and overcoming a general fatigue and difficulty in breathing,” which are typical reactions to those who are recovering from the airborne coronavirus that causes the illness.

Cardinal Burke added that he was unsure when he would be able to conduct normal activities.

In the letter, the cardinal also credited God for saving his life “for some work he wishes me to carry out.”

“I am determined to use the present time of rehabilitation in the best manner possible, so I will be prepared to carry out his work,” the letter said.

Cardinal Burke concluded the letter by asking for prayer for a full recover and said he also offered his “prayers and sufferings” for those who have been praying for him and for the world and the Catholic Church, “which are beset with so much confusion and error to the great and even mortal harm of many souls.”

The cardinal has not made it public knowledge on whether he was vaccinated for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.

The Vatican had started offering all Vatican residents, retirees and employees the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in mid-January 2021. The cardinal was eligible for the vaccine as a member of the College of Cardinals and a member of the Apostolic Signatura, which he led as prefect from 2008 until his resignation in 2014.

Cardinal Burke has expressed concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines, including that it is “never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of the cell lines of aborted fetuses. The thought of the introduction of such a vaccine into one’s body is rightly abhorrent.”

He also said the “vaccination itself cannot be imposed, in a totalitarian manner, on citizens.”

In December, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, citing church teaching, said that when alternative vaccines are not available, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines developed or tested using cell lines originating from aborted fetuses, in this case, including COVID-19 vaccines.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines did not use abortion-derived cell lines in developing or producing their vaccines, but they did in lab testing.

Cardinal Burke served as bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse from 1995 to 2004, as archbishop of St. Louis from 2004 to 2008, and as prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Signature from 2008 to 2014.

While the cardinal often resides in Italy, he travels extensively and was in the United States at the time of sharing the news about contracting the virus.

read more on coronavirus

May 1 marks 5th anniversary of consecrating U.S. to Mary as COVID declared a pandemic

Dealing with pandemic PTSD

Dr. Robert Redfield warns against ‘scientific arrogance,’ calls for increased biosecurity

Celebrating the class of 2024

Catholic bishops reiterate moral permissibility of COVID vaccines as boosters become available

CELAM report portrays long-lasting crisis in Latin America after COVID-19 hit the region

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

  • Castel Gandolfo After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home

| Latest Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Latest World News |

80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons

Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal
  • The virtue of patriotism
  • Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says
  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies
  • Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says
  • Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter
  • Jesus did not ignore those in need, and neither should Christians, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en