Richard Anthony Burke

Who is Richard Anthony Burke?

Richard Anthony Burke is a prelate in the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, he was ordained a priest on 18 May 1975 for St. Patrick’s Society for the Foreign Missions. He was appointed the coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Warri, in Nigeria, on 6 December 1995. He was ordained a bishop on 6 January 1996 and succeeded to the position of ordinary of the diocese on 3 March 1997 at the age of 48. The Principal Consecrator was Pope John Paul II; his Principal Co-Consecrators were Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re and Jorge María Mejía.

On 24 December 2007 Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Burke as the new Archbishop of Benin City, also in Nigeria. After allegations of sexual abuse of an initially 14-year-old girl over the course of 20 years, the Pope accepted his resignation from that position on 31 May 2010. Archbishop Burke admitted a sexual relationship. An investigation, according to a statement released by the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, was held by the Society into the abuse claims “found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse”.