A senior Vatican official said on Tuesday that Cardinal Raymond Burke, a conservative American, no longer enjoys certain Vatican benefits, such as a large subsidised flat and his salary.
The announcement was made by the pope to senior aides last week during a regular Vatican meeting, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He cited the pope as saying that Burke, one of his most ardent opponents, had sowed “disunity” in the Church and was “working against the Church and against the papacy.”
Burke has been without a top Vatican position for years. Like many cardinals who reside outside of Rome, he consults for one of its tribunals and spends the majority of his time in his home state of Wisconsin.
Attending the meeting, an official refuted reports in the media that Francis had referred to the 75-year-old Burke as “an enemy”.
Burke is revered as a hero by Church traditionalists, especially in the United States, where he frequently appears as a guest on conservative Catholic media platforms that have made the pope’s criticism their primary focus.
This was Francis’s second move this month involving a conservative American prelate.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, was another conservative critic that the pope fired on November 11 after Strickland refused to resign after a Vatican probe.
