Cardinal Raymond Burke may live in Rome, population 4.2 million in its metro area, but his roots are in Midwestern small towns — and rural Catholic schools.

Having grown up on a dairy farm outside Richland Center, Wisconsin, about 65 miles southeast of La Crosse, the cardinal appeared at home Aug. 11 visiting Vermillion, a town of about 420 people 20 miles south of St. Paul. Invited by a friend, Cardinal Burke visited St. John the Baptist School — across Main Street from St. John the Baptist church — and spoke to a small, socially distanced, mask-wearing group of schoolchildren, parents, teachers and guests.

Cardinal Burke said he had been to Vermillion once before and was invited back to give remarks at the prekindergarten through fourth-grade school of about 90 students. Many are from the home parish, others are from nearby St. Mary’s in New Trier and St. Mathias in Hampton. In the last 10 years, schools at the latter two parishes closed after serving residents for more than 100 years.

“It’s a great pleasure to visit your parish and it brings me a particular joy because it’s a little bit like revisiting my childhood,” said Cardinal Burke, 72. “And I was greatly blessed. My parents made the sacrifices to send me to the Catholic school in Richland Center.” Acknowledging the sacrifices parents face today in sending their children to a Catholic school, he said they can’t do anything better for the future of society and the Church than provide a solid Catholic education.

Speaking to the value of Catholic schools is a passion for the cardinal. “The older I get,” he said, “the more I appreciate what was given to me in those very early years of my life by my parents and in a Catholic school.”

Cardinal Burke served nine years as bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, from 1995 to 2004. He was instrumental in founding the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe there, and continues to serve as president of its board of directors.

He visits and attends meetings at the shrine every summer, taking time as well to visit family, friends and shrine benefactors in the area.

From 2004-2008, he served as archbishop of St. Louis. Pope St. Paul VI ordained him a priest in 1975 and Pope St. John Paul II ordained him a bishop in 1995.

In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2010. Appointed in November 2014, Cardinal Burke is the Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. In September 2017, Cardinal Burke was appointed as a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

Catholic schools, the cardinal said, are about teaching everything that’s important for children to know and to develop their skills. But students and teachers don’t necessarily need all of the latest, fancy things to do that. People simply need to be well educated and have the heart of Christ, he said.

Abby Wagner, who works at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, took time to attend the cardinal’s visit. She has two children at St. John’s today and one who graduated. They represent the third generation of children in her family who have attended the school.

It’s important for her children to experience the Catholic faith in a school setting, she said.

“I see in my kids every day that they have learned the skills of being kind and caring,” Wagner said, “and nurturing, respectful, caring, patient and all those things they need in order to succeed at life.”

Hearing the cardinal speak at her children’s school was unbelievable, she said.

“I had tears because it was so moving to hear that he values that so much for our young people, and society is changing so much,” Wagner said. “If we can continue with the help of our clergy and people like him promoting this for our kids and seeing how important this is for them and their lives, it just made me tear up.”

Two longtime parishioners at St. John the Baptist, Betty and Jake Gergen, arrived early. They sent all nine of their children to the school. Betty said she appreciated how friendly the cardinal and Archbishop Bernard Hebda were as they addressed the group.

“It brought him down home,” she said of the cardinal’s visit. “It was a very pleasant morning.”

“I promise you,” Cardinal Burke said in his closing remarks, “especially now that I’ve had this experience with you, that I will pray for your school, that God bless it, that it be a strong Catholic school and that you receive all the support that you need to continue this great work.”