Catholic Gays, Remarried Divorcees and Unwed Couples Like Murderers Even If They Do Good Deeds, Says Cardinal

Controversial American Cardinal Raymond Burke said even if Catholic gays, remarried divorcees and unwed couples do good deeds, they are still living in mortal sin and likened them to murderers who are kind to other people.

"It's like the person who murders someone and yet is kind to other people," Burke told pro-life LifeSiteNews in a Rome interview published on the site last Tuesday.

Burke was demoted last year by the Vatican to being patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from being the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

Burke made the statement in response to a question about Catholic homosexuals, remarried divorcees and non-married couples who "show qualities of self-sacrifice, generosity and dedication that cannot be ignored."

"But through their choice of lifestyle, they are in what must be seen by outsiders as an objective state of mortal sin: a chosen and prolonged state of mortal sin. Could you remind us of the Church's teaching on the value and merit of prayer and good actions in this state?" LifeNewsSite asked Burke.

Burke said no amount of good deed can justify their "mortal sin."

"If you are living publicly in a state of mortal sin there isn't any good act that you can perform that justifies that situation. The person remains in grave sin," the Cardinal said. "We believe that God created everyone good, and that God wants the salvation of all men, but that can only come about by conversion of life."

He said what these people are doing are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

"And so we have to call people who are living in these gravely sinful situations to conversion," he said. "And to give the impression that somehow there's something good about living in a state of grave sin is simply contrary to what the Church has always and everywhere taught."

LifeSiteNews asked the Cardinal, "Since the extraordinary synod on the family, we have entered a period of uncertainty and confusion over several 'hot-button' issues: communion for divorced and 'remarried' couples, a change of attitude towards homosexual unions and an apparent relaxing of attitudes towards non-married couples. Does your Eminence think that this confusion is already producing adverse effects among Catholics?"

Burke responded: "Most certainly, it is. I hear it myself: I hear it from Catholics, I hear it from bishops. People are claiming now, for instance, that the Church has changed her teaching with regard to sexual relations outside of marriage, with regard to the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts. Or people who are within irregular matrimonial unions are demanding to receive Holy Communion, claiming that this is the will of the Holy Father. And we have astounding situations, like the declarations of the bishop of Antwerp with regard to homosexual acts, which go undisciplined, and so we can see that this confusion is spreading, really, in an alarming way."