Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he was ordained as a Jesuit priest on 16 June 1968. Burke was appointed Bishop of what is now the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau, Bahamas on 17 July 1981 (the first born in the Caribbean), and was consecrated 11 October 1981. In June 1999, Pope John Paul II named Bishop Burke Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Nassau.
