Your Eminence Leo Cardinal Burke,
Ave Maria.
On this Vigil of the Feast of St. James, I write to you today with the utmost respect for your office since I recognize you as a Prince of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
Your Eminence, I remember learning about you five years after my ordination as a Catholic priest when you tenaciously exposed the errors of Amoris Laetitia. You made a private correction, but then you went public.
Nine years ago, in 2016, you boldly wrote a public paternal correction in the form of several “dubia” (doubts) in regards to the moral theology heresies of Amoris Laetitia. If it went unanswered, you threatened (in the most charitable way) there would be a public correction from you. Not only was this promise made to the Vatican, but to all Catholics. And since we know there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, you essentially made this promise to the whole world.
You never fulfilled that promise.
At this point in my letter, it would be wise to point out that Matthew 18 requires any fraternal correction be private before it be public. This is even more true for paternal corrections.
However, several years ago, a friend of a friend approached you in person, asking you to announce that the numerous peculiar circumstances regarding the purported-resignation of Pope Benedict required an investigation as to the validity of the act, and hence the validity of the subsequent Conclave.
We never witnessed you acting on this request to reveal (or even question) the obvious irregularities to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation under duress. Nor did you expose the illegal activity that was publicized regarding the 2013 Conclave. Yes, this illegal activity was public, not a conspiracy theory.
Again, you charitably and courageously brought the paternal correction from the private forum to the public forum for the sake of another’s soul. So also, now I do the same for your soul.
First of all, we are nearly nine years from your promised public correction of the heresies of Amoris Laetitia. Although Francis is dead, his heresies remain in the Acta Apostolica with no significant challenges. Who among the Princes of the Church would have the grace and courage to challenge these remaining malignant tumors in the heart of the Church except you?
In fact, you gallantly proclaimed in the summer of 2025 that the message of Fatima “speaks about the practical apostasy of our time that is the going away from Christ by so many in the Church and the violence and death which are its fruit.” Thank you for saying that.
Of course, most Catholics are all still wondering about the Third Secret of Fatima, because only that will shed light on the current Church crisis. I do not claim in this letter to propose that you know the Third Secret.
However, we do have some idea as to what this might be. A famous non-Catholic American commentator visited Rome a few years ago. He claimed that a high-ranking Prelate in the Vatican told him the Third Secret of Fatima was “a bad Mass and a bad Council.” This American podcaster put this on his YouTube show reaching over a million people.
Of course, I can’t prove that the Third Secret of Fatima warned about “a bad Mass and a bad Council,” but when we look at how 50,000,000 Catholics left the Catholic Church immediately after Vatican II (not to mention the catastrophe that followed from 2013 onwards) we have to wonder if these were not in fact the words of Our Lady to the children of Fatima over 100 years ago.
This summer, shortly after speaking about the apostasy warned about at Fatima, you then strangely added these words to your social media accounts: “Prayer and the devotional life are essential. After the Second Vatican Council, there was a great emphasis on the Mass, which is wonderful; it is true that there’s nothing greater in our life than to participate in Holy Mass. But we’re human beings, and we need ways to express…”
Your Eminence, how could you promote the very apostasy that you condemned just a week earlier? Even if you do not believe that the Third Secret of Fatima has to do with “a bad Mass and a bad Council,” how can you say the period after Vatican II that bled 50M Catholics could ever be considered “wonderful”?
Again, Your Eminence, I respect you and I have the same love for the Traditional Mass as you do. But even Cardinal Zen said to EWTN a few years ago, “The Catholics in prison in China can live without the sacraments but they can’t live without the faith.”
So also, if you attempt to preserve the ancient Mass while letting the faith get destroyed by those in Rome, you may enjoy the same eternal reward as them. I do not use these words lightly, as I realize I will answer to God for every single word I put on my website, especially those addressed publicly to a Prince of the Church.
I do not want to believe the public naysayers who claim you promote Vatican II and remain silent on the episcopal appointments just because you got a birthday card in Latin. I would hope you are a man who cares for his soul more than that.
As a friend recently wrote on his site, “Leo has kept every major policy from Francis. He continues the Vatican’s China deal. He praises Laudato Sí. He backs Fiducia Supplicans. He promotes women to power over clergy, embraces synodality, and keeps [Cdl.] Fernández. He hasn’t said a word about restoring the Latin Mass.”
Cardinal Burke, I encourage you as a son in Christ to address all these issues this year of our Lord, 2025, in which I remain, filially yours in Christ,
Fr. David Nix