If a lifelong love affair with womanizing, adultery and alcoholism is a legacy, then it belongs to the Kennedys. And they’re supposed to be a model for other Catholic families? Hah!
No, even us heretical Lutherans understand that they represent one of the weaknesses of that other faith, that money talks and opens doors.
I would hazard a guess that the antics of the Kennedy Family has been of great embarrassment to a vast preponderance of Roman Catholics who try very hard to live by the rules.
Remember, JFK was the first Catholic President. There was a very significant anti-Catholic bias that was carried over from Europe and from the experiences leading up to and through the Reformation.
People make a big deal about race relations and resentment about blacks in positions of power, but there were just as strong a feelings about the Irish and Italians due to their Roman Catholic faith.
These biases are based on the excesses of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church and fears and resentments do die hard. The Kennedys, unfortunately, with their favored treatment by the church, just reopen the wounds and resentment of the European Aristocracy. Something most of our ancestors came to America to escape.