One of the Catholic Church's most outspoken conservatives had strong words for gays and remarried Catholics in an interview published last week.
Cardinal Raymond Burke said that gay couples and divorced and remarried Christians cannot justify their situation by being "dedicated, " or "kind."
"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," he told LifeSiteNews.
"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."
When asked if being "generous" and "kind" was enough, his response was swift.
"Of course it's not," Burke said. "It's like the person who murders someone and yet is kind to other people."
Cardinal Burke was formerly the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church.
After a series of statements criticising Pope Francis' liberal stance toward gays and divorced Catholics, he was reassigned to the position of patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a largely ceremonial position within the charity.
Francis denied that the reassignment was a demotion.
"We needed a smart American who would know how to get around and I thought of him for that position," Francis said in December.
Burke has referred to the Church under Francis' pontificate as a "ship without a rudder," and criticised Francis' infamous "Who am I to judge?" response toward homosexuals.
The 66-year-old has also been critical of altar girls, and blamed the Church's sexual abuse cases on priests "who were feminised and confused about their own sexual identity."
