By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Pope John Paul II has named a new archbishop for the St. Louis Archdiocese.
Raymond Burke is a native of La Crosse, Wisc., which is where he's also been bishop since 1994.
The 55-year old Burke will replace Cardinal Justin Rigali, who left St. Louis this summer to become the Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Burke has also studied in Rome at the American seminary and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has a degree in canon law.
Burke was introduced to the community Tuesday; he says he'll have zero tolerance for sexually abusive priests, and that he'll gladly meet any victim.
"My policy has always been to meet with the people themselves involved. And I'm always ready to do that because those are the people that need the attention of the archbishop and the care of the church."
Burke says he'll also focus on finding good people to become priests; he adds a big challenge will be meeting Catholics' needs as populations shift away from St. Louis city.
David Clohessy, with the sex abuse victims' group SNAP, says Burke's willingness to meet with victims is encouraging.
"That would be at least something Archbishop Rigali never made the time to do in the nine years he was here. That would be a very positive first step. We'd like to see more than a first step, obviously."
But Clohessy says he hopes people don't automatically assume the new leader will fix problems and meet needs better than the last one.
The St. Louis Archdiocese has more than twice the members of La Crosse.