By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – As St. Louis Catholics prepare to get their new Archbishop Monday, Raymond Burke says it's possible he'll ask pro-choice Catholic lawmakers to change their views.
Burke presided over a prayer service Sunday night. He's drawn attention in the last few weeks in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where he ordered priests to refuse communion to Catholic lawmakers who are pro-choice.
Burke says there might have been some confusion in the media that he was trying to tell the government what to do. Instead he says he was trying to lead fellow Catholics. He adds it's possible he'll contact pro-choice Catholic politicians in the St. Louis area.
"The lawmaker is somebody who's contributing directly to abortion by voting for laws that permit abortion or in some way favor it," Burke said Sunday night, while greeting people after an evening prayer service.
"But it's a grave sin for any Catholic to be in favor of abortion."
"People construed this as me trying to tell the government how to be run and it wasn't that at all. I was simply addressing members of the flock in LaCrosse about the very serious moral quesion in which they were not only endangering their own souls but also causing a lot of scandal to others."
Burke will be formally installed as archbishop at 2:00 p.m. on Monday in the Cathedral Basilica; he's being installed on the fifth anniversary of the Pope's arrival in St. Louis.