Posted on 03/31/2012 5:36:48 AM PDT by IbJensen
PAXTON, MASSACHUSETTS, March 30, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the Kennedy clan may be shoo-ins for every office in the state of Massachusetts, but they are not guaranteed access to young Catholic minds.
Anna Maria College in Paxton uninvited Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, after Bishop Robert J. McManus said her positions on abortion, homosexuality, and the Obama administration’s mandate on insurance coverage for abortifacient contraception and sterilization were incompatible with Catholic teaching.
The college said in a press release that it obeyed the bishop “with great regret,” saying that “as a small, Catholic college that relies heavily on the good will of its relationship with the Bishop and the larger Catholic community, its options are limited.”
A spokesman for the college told the media Kennedy deserved high marks for her work on behalf of “gun control.”
The backlash from liberal Catholics against the decision was swift.
Steve Krueger, chairman of the Catholic Democrats, said, “Increasingly, we see more and more bishops playing the role of enforcers of the faith rather than shepherds of souls, because they squandered the trust that they once had and the authority that came with it.”
Sister Janet Eisner, president of Emmanuel College, which gave Vicki an honorary degree in 2010, said, “I find it hard to believe in Massachusetts, in 2012, that this is happening.”
Kennedy responded in a press release, saying of the bishop, “by objecting to my appearance at Anna Maria College he has made a judgment about my worthiness as a Catholic. This is a sad day for me and an even sadder one for the Church I love.”
Some claimed the bishop had been pressured by an undisclosed “wealthy donor,” an assertion the diocese forcefully rejected. Spokesman Ray Delisle told local media, “it doesn’t take a donor to convince the bishops to act on their principles.” Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, said the bishop told him, “This is my decision and mine alone, and nobody’s pressuring me to do this.”
He said the bishop added, “sometimes it’s lonely at the top.”
“We would want Bishop McManus to know that there’s a multitude of Catholics who would support his decision,” Adam Wilson, director of communications at the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic higher education watchdog organization, told LifeSiteNews.com. “Just three years ago, more than 367,000 people signed The Cardinal Newman Society’s ‘Notre Dame Scandal’ petition in support of the bishops’ speakers policy, which the Worcester diocese just referenced.” That scandal involved Notre Dame’s invitation for President Barack Obama to serve as commencement speaker in 2009 and to receive an honorary law degree.
Today’s dust-up was not Kennedy’s first brush with a faithful Church hierarchy. In 2004, she wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post entitled, “The Altar is Not a Battlefield,” which called depriving pro-abortion politicians (such as her husband) Communion a “harsh penalty” that was “flawed and intellectually dishonest.” A month later, the Vatican codified this policy in “Worthiness to Receive,” authored by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The Church had forbidden Ted Kennedy from receiving Communion in 1983, following his divorce from his first wife, Joan. According to his biographer Adam Clymer, he received an annulment “10 or 11 years” later. He married Victoria in 1992. She had interned for him in 1976.
Kennedy is still scheduled to address Boston College’s law school commencement later this year.
Just imagine, a Bishop exercising his magisterial authority, in obedience to the Church, has the audacity to defy the Kennedy mystique where Catholic liberals have long resided in the diocesan woodwork of Massachusetts, the so-called "Cradle of Liberty".
The fact that these Catholics-in-name only (CINO) have held reign for such a long period had to be a shock when the Bishop acted in accordance with the teachings of the Church and not their political-social ideology.
Thank you Bishop for exercising your pastoral duty to guard your flock against the wolves in false clothing.
throughout history it has been a painful but necessary exercise for the Church to purge heretics. The Bishops if now serious are about fifty years late in taking definitive action. This has hurt the Church.
Liberation theoligists work(ed) to undermine the moral authority of Christianity,be it Roman Catholic or Protestant.
Both abortion and homosexualality depend on recruitment of naive,confused people for new members because they can’t reproduce otherwise.
The Church hierarchy hasn’t realized after over 50 years that a new religion was created due to Vatican II.
Satan is happy. Jesus is sad.
Now, isn’t Nancy Pelosi next?
The process is called evolution.
The evolution of Christianity is a slow but continuous process
This is more evidence of a turning and from comments in this article, the liberals are totally dumbfounded.
Lent is a good time for Kennedy to think about the worthiness of her soul and her apostasy and heresy, IMO. Is she a follower of Eve who said "no," or is she a follower of Mary, who said "yes" to God?
Who does she want to follow, Eve or Mary? She has to decide that herself. Maybe she can use the time that has just been freed up to reflect on that question.
After you cheat on your wife, put her through Chappaquiddick, and after she has given you multiple children, and bore the pain of a miscarriage 1 month after Chappaquiddick, the church decides to give you an annulment 10-11 years after divorce, so that you can take communion? Based on what? That the marriage was never consummated? That she wasn't as Catholic and pious as you? Or does it have something to do with how much got put into the offering plate? Makes me sick to my stomach.
Joan deserved an annulment since the swimmer admitted that he never intended to honor his marriage vows.
Having said that, Victoria Reggie Raclin is still married to her first husband, in the eyes of the Church, since civil divorce is not recognized. One of these reporters should stick a microphone in her face and ask her why she married Teddy in a civil ceremony in his house in McLean, Va. if her faith is so important to her. She and the swimmer were unrepentant public adulterers. Bishop McManus is correct and should be applauded in his decision.
That is what bishops are supposed to do, dearie. And it wasn't a hard judgment to make, either.
He married Victoria in 1992.
In a civil ceremony in his house in McLean, VA. not in the Church. Reggie Raclin and the swimmer were simply shacking up.
“Makes me sick to my stomach.”
Here is a Tums for you.
Vatican Declares 1996 Kennedy Annulment Invalid; Justice Denied For Years
Didn’t know about it myself. Of course in 1991 they had pedophile enabling Archbishop Bernard Francis Law in authority and running interference. Got to do more research.
s/h/b 1996
“Sister Janet Eisner, president of Emmanuel College, which gave Vicki an honorary degree in 2010, said, “I find it hard to believe in Massachusetts, in 2012, that this is happening.”
Would seem the Sister is in need of a refresher course.
Thanks for the Tums. The article is about Joe Kennedy’s annulment, right?
That article is about a different Kennedy than Ted.
Amen, this is the LEAST I would expect from a Catholic bishop. Maybe the hierarchy is finally waking up to the fact that Vatican II was a disaster, pushed by heretics, and that they just might lose everything. Bishops have to answer for each and every soul under their care. Will God ask, wy did you let a public sinner to receive the Sacraments?, OR did you speak out against abortion, a sin that cries out to heaven for vengence?
It’s hard enough looking after my own soul.
Thanks, you are right....I screwed up. Comments re Law still stand.
Thanks, you are right....I screwed up. Sorry. Comments re Law still stand.
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