Posted on 08/27/2009 10:22:18 PM PDT by STARWISE
Saturday's grandiose Catholic funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy has the potential to be a scandal that will make Notre Dame's Obama Day a walk in the park.
With all four living former Presidents in attendance and an address from President Barack Obama, the funeral is set to be a royal crowning, right inside a Catholic Church, of a man who betrayed the most fundamental moral teachings of the faith.
What example will this give to Catholics and the rest of the world looking in? It will surely belie the Catholic teachings on the sanctity of life and sexuality.
"Surely," they will say, "if one of the most vociferous proponents of abortion and homosexuality in politics is so feted in the Church, the Church cannot possibly regard abortion as murder."
Would anyone so honor one who so advocated what the church officially considers an "unspeakable crime"?
The Church in the US has suffered a dangerous precedent with the recent Notre Dame award to President Obama. However, President Obama is not Catholic. Therefore, the impact of the scandal was blunted.
Regarding Senator Kennedy, however, the stakes are much higher in terms of scandal and public relations.
Kennedy, began his life as a Catholic in great ceremony. At age seven, he received his First Communion from Pope Pius XII in the Vatican. He was also pro-life early in his political career.
"Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized - the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old," he wrote in 1971.
However, abandoning the practice of faith is regarded as worse than never having known.
The Bible, in the second book of Peter teaches: "For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice than, after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them." (2 Peter 2:20-21)
Rev. Patrick Tarrant, pastor of the Church where Kennedy is to be buried has informed the media that he was present at Kennedy's death and thus hopefully the senator made a last confession and was reconciled with the Church.
However, only a public repudiation of his militantly anti-life and anti-family actions would serve to lessen the scandal of the upcoming funeral extravaganza.
I don't discount that that might be coming. After all, Kennedy did have President Obama deliver a letter to the Pope when Obama made his visit to the Vatican in July. Although unlikely, given the Senator's recent, intense support for Obama's health care reforms, perhaps there was a public confession in the letter waiting to be released. We can hope and pray.
If we assume a private confession was made there could be a private funeral Mass for the family, without politicians and media. And of course there would still be a secular memorial event, with all the pomp and ceremony for this star of the secular world.
Such a deliberately subdued Catholic liturgical event for the Senator would, at this time, with the announcement of the Catholic funeral already out, come at the cost of enduring the rage of those who have become used to the Church giving in to their demands. However, the eternal benefit would be to send a clear message to Catholic politicians in particular, and to the public in general, that the Church is actually serious about the sanctity of human life.
It could also be an opportunity for Church leaders to repent of having failed to work hard enough to bring wayward Catholic politicians back to faith, or even of having in many cases led them away from the faith, as some clergy are known to have influenced Kennedy.
It would not be the first time the Church has apologized for not living up to it's pro-life convictions. In 2000, when Pope John Paul II was making his much touted "Universal Prayer" of "Confession Of Sins And Asking For Forgiveness" one of the ignored apologies concerned the unborn.
Then-Archbishop François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân prayed "let us pray for those who are most defenseless, the unborn killed in their mother's womb or even exploited for experimental purposes by those who abuse the promise of biotechnology and distort the aims of science."
The Pope responded in prayer, "God, our Father, you always bear the cry of the poor. How many times have Christians themselves not recognized you in the hungry, the thirsty and the naked, in the persecuted, the imprisoned, and in those incapable of defending themselves, especially in the first stages of life. For all those who have committed acts of injustice by trusting in wealth and power and showing contempt for the "little ones" who are so dear to you, we ask your forgiveness: have mercy on us and accept our repentance. We ask this through Christ our Lord."
Canada suffered a similar scandal in 2000, with the death of former Catholic Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Despite his having legalized abortion, divorce and homosexuality he was given a state funeral in Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica, presided over by the archbishop of Montreal, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte. One of the pallbearers was Cuba's communist president Fidel Castro.
Five months after the funeral Calgary Bishop Fred Henry was asked if he were offended by Trudeau’s funeral. He replied: “Yes, I was.... there were some issues or questions there that might make one kind of pause and consider whether or not this was an appropriate funeral to have or not."
Truer words have not been spoken on this thread.
Well God did tell you in the Bible that we would be treated this way. :) I try to keep that in mind when the holier than thou’s try to do this each and everytime Catholism is mentioned. They are bigots plain and simple.
So I will sit on the sidelines and silently grieve and try to find to find the grace to pray for mercy for us all.
I guess God is allowing this to happen, but we are told that He is not mocked. Jesus had the authority to get ugly with the moneychangers (rightfully so), but that authority has not been delegated to we ordinary people just trying to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling".
With few notable exceptions, it has always been thus. Church leaders are blinded and intimidated by the moneyed and powerful and bend the rules for them. Not for Henry VIII though. All England was lost to the church, and many suffered the aftermath of that. Now the pendulum is starting to swing the other way after the passing of many generations.
It's a long time since it was a "mission church", in the sense of an outpost. The present church is, properly, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It's urban, large -- and very beautiful. According to the website, it's staffed by "Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province." They have always run the church -- it's full of pictures of Redemptorist saints. I have no way of knowing what may have gone on between the Redemptorists and Cdl. O'Malley. I do know that there have been no public prayers for Kennedy in my parish (in Boston) at daily Mass this week, except -- as I said above -- the one petition that politicians who profess to be Christian should act that way.
Mission is close (probably a mile or so) to Boston Children's Hospital, so there may well be that connection (I do remember that JFK's baby died there). Still sounds like a last-ditch choice, though -- he would have expected the Cathedral and a Mass said by the Cardinal.
Kennedy’s letter re: a change of law where the apt. of his successor was concerned was written [and dated] months before it was mailed. Howie Carr, the local talk show bigwig, covered this extensively. He pointed out that Kennedy’s camp offered no explanation for the mysterious/long delay between the writing and sending of the letter. My personal theory is that after he wrote it Kennedy instructed that it not be mailed until he gave the go ahead. As those around him saw that he had slipped past the point where he could cognitively make that call, they sent the letter on their own authority.
Yes, I am aware of that fact by now.
That said, we do not know Ted's state of soul at death. By the Grace of God he may have confessed and repented. We are all subject to the Mercy of God which is profound and eternal and is available to those who seek It.
We don't know the state of his soul at death, yet we should continue to pray for his soul in hopes that he indeed found his way back Home. Confessing to another sinner is not going to grant you pardon and entrance into Heaven. The only way to the Father is through the Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of all.
It was on Howie Carr that I heard the auto-pen theory.
The only thing I heard about auto-pen on Howie Carr was a theory that it might have been signed that way. That was not the only theory offered. The other ideas were that the signature looked strange either because Kennedy’s hand was unsteady due to the illness or else that someone had forged his signature. If you heard that Howie had proved it was definitely done via auto-pen then I wonder when he said that. I certainly missed it, and I’ve been listening steadily since Kennedy’s passing.
I never said anything was proved.
....and all thanks to the the intentional disorganization designed and implemented at the infamous Vatican II from hell.
My characterizing the relationship as “rocky” certainly understated the problems with it and they all were because of Kennedy’s descending into the politics of personal destruction along with most other national politicians of the political left. But you said it so much better than me.
You have Freepmail. :)
This is such a misdirected statement, one hardly knows where to begin. But I'll try:
"Nary a word" is a pretty ridiculous assertion, since "over the centuries" the Church has constantly done just the opposite: has taken such a 'heteronormative,' marriage centered view of sex that gays worldwide see Catholicism as Global Enemy #1.(Here's just one example of a historian who complains of the Catholic Church's "relentless denunciation" of buggery.)
Sin has always been sin and has always been called sin in the Catholic Church; and, heart-breakingly, there have always been sinners, of which I am one. 'Nuff said.
Second, the Church does not do "holy smackdowns" of people at their funerals. The service itself is intended to remind us all of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.
Will that happen at Ted Kennedy's funeral? (Sigh.) We shall see.
Perhaps we can derive some comfort from some facts that have escaped many people's notice:
I will pray, as all Christians should, for God's mercy, of which I too am in need.
another bigotted response...
nope, I was a devout catholic, went to catholic school, and so on. I left the church because of the double standard.
Kennedy was excused for murder and his feelings on abortion,
Obama had religious articles covered so he could make a speech at a catholic college.
They cave when it means MONEY.
I called and was directed to the ‘comment’ line. Left my message. In essence, I hope the Cardinal will do what is RIGHT and not what is popular - it takes integrity to do that. Lots more said but that’s the short of it. Thanks!
Liberals don't give money to the Church, they give opinions.
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