Burke’s Trans Nun Amnesia: How a Cardinal Who Approved a Male “Sister” Now Hosts a Conference Warning About Them
Leo’s LGBTQ welcome, the SSPX’s new seat in the tent, and a Church where nine out of ten cradle Catholics are leaving
At Cardinal Raymond Burke’s annual Speculum iustitiae canon law conference, a Vatican official sounded the alarm that some transsexuals may have been ordained, their surgeries only discovered after ordination. His tone was one of horror: the sort of ecclesial scandal a faithful shepherd should surely have fought to prevent.
Yet the irony is breathtaking: in the 1990s, Burke himself approved and elevated a women’s religious congregation co-founded by “Sister Julie” Green, born Joel Green, a man who had undergone sex-change surgery. When concerns were raised, Burke defended the founder, insisting “she” did not promote the morality of the surgery, and warning critics against “rash judgments.” Rome only acted after the matter went public.1234
Now, the same Burke presides over a conference where the very scenario he once enabled is treated as a symptom of the Church’s collapse. It’s the perfect emblem of post-Vatican II “traditionalism”: speak thunderously against sin from the lectern, but turn pastoral discretion into doctrinal surrender when the decision is yours to make.
Burke’s Trans Nun Legacy
In 1997, then-Bishop Burke elevated the Franciscan Servants of Jesus, a women’s order co-founded by “Sister Julie” Green, who had undergone sex-change surgery years earlier. The facts were not hidden, complaints were made, letters were sent to the papal nuncio, and Vatican consultations were acknowledged.
Burke’s written defense admitted the co-founder’s biological sex and the moral disorder of the surgery, yet still justified allowing “her” to found and participate in the order. Canon law expertise didn’t prevent the bishop from treating the case as a pastoral oddity rather than a clear impossibility.
Fast forward to 2025: his own conference warns about priests who turn out to be female-to-male transsexuals.
The hypocrisy is a straight line from Burke’s permissiveness to the “horrors” now decried under his banner.
Leo’s Holy Door for “We Are Church”
Not to be outdone, Leo XIV has announced he will welcome the pro-LGBT, women’s ordination–advocating “We Are Church” movement to Rome in October, complete with a ceremonial walk through the Holy Door during the Jubilee.5 The group’s mission is openly contrary to Catholic doctrine on sexuality and the priesthood, but in the era of synodality, that’s called “dialogue.”
This is not a matter of meeting sinners to call them to repentance. This is public recognition, during the most symbolically sacred rite of the Holy Year, of an organization whose stated purpose is to dismantle what remains of Catholic teaching on the most fundamental moral issues.
The spin will be predictable: “case-by-case blessings” for same-sex couples, “welcoming language” for those in mortal sin, and of course, the fig leaf of “marriage is still between a man and a woman.” The doctrinal boundaries remain in the catechism’s text, but the public imagination is catechized into believing they are irrelevant.
SSPX in the Big Tent
And then there’s the curious case of the SSPX being listed in the Vatican’s Jubilee calendar.6 Some will cheer it as a sign of reconciliation. But note the company: the same “Big Tent” also includes La Tenda di Gionata, an Italian LGBT group openly promoting homosexual relationships.
This is not a victory for Tradition, but an invitation to join the circus. In exchange for silence on Leo’s doctrinal betrayals, the SSPX gets a spot in the program; alongside the very movements it once condemned as incompatible with the Catholic faith. Inclusion is the price of admission; compromise is the cost of staying.
Nine in Ten Cradle Catholics Gone
Meanwhile, an academic study has confirmed what anyone attending a typical suburban parish could tell you: the Church in America is losing nine out of ten cradle Catholics. Weekly Mass attendance among those raised Catholic has collapsed to 11%.7
The proposed “solution”? Stronger parish community life, more youth groups, more fellowship. As if the problem were merely a lack of social glue. What the researchers ignore is the obvious: people aren’t leaving because there’s too little coffee-hour camaraderie. They’re leaving because what’s offered is not the Catholic faith at all, but a pale imitation: a horizontal religion of platitudes, guitar Masses, and moral surrender.
The postconciliar project has systematically dismantled every visible sign of the supernatural: communion in the hand like a snack, ugly ’70s architecture, women in pantsuits distributing the Eucharist, annulments on demand, and blessings for adultery and sodomy. Why would anyone stay for that? The “values gap” is not an accident, it’s the result of the hierarchy’s deliberate alignment with the world.
Francis’s Green Gospel for the Children
Even in death, Francis’s legacy lives on in the form of “The Children’s Encyclical,” a pastel-colored eco-manifesto calling for a “symbolic handover” from adults to children to lead the fight against climate change.8 In Francis’s telling, environmental stewardship now rivals the Gospel in urgency, with children as the Church’s prophets.
This is catechesis replaced by activism, salvation replaced by sustainability. It’s the same substitution at the heart of Laudato si’ and Laudate Deum: swap supernatural hope for temporal utopia, and make the Church an NGO for the planet. Meanwhile, the moral and sacramental life of the faithful collapses, yet we are told our greatest sin is a carbon footprint.
Conclusion: The Double Game Is the Point
The thread running through all these stories is selective outrage. Burke can host a conference condemning the specter of trans ordinations while his own past record contains the same scandal in miniature. Leo can bless dissenters with ceremonial honor while affirming doctrine on paper. The SSPX can accept a Jubilee listing while Rome lists LGBT activists in the same breath.
This is how the post-Vatican II Church sustains itself: speak like Athanasius when the crowd demands it, govern like a functionary when the cameras are off. The faithful deserve better than men who condemn in theory what they condone in practice. Until the double game ends, the mask stays on, and the exodus will continue.
Dear God, this is so depressing. Satan is certainly running things right now. Disordered behavior and apostasy abound in His church. What is a Catholic to do ?
Sedevacantism’s stock continues to rise.