In Boston, the center of Kennedy power and myth for decades, locals and politicians also reacted to word that the commonwealth's senior senator, who served the state for 46 years, had passed away.Posted on 08/26/2009 9:26:20 AM PDT by NYer
BOSTON -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died in peace with his whole family praying around him, the clan's priest said Wednesday morning as the world mourned Massachusetts' senior senator, who died from brain cancer at the age of 77.
"It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in -- the spiritual world," said Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church.
Tarrant, who was called to Kennedy's bedside late Tuesday as the senator was dying, said it was clear that Kennedy was ready for the journey that awaited him. He described the senator as "a man of quiet prayer" in his last hours.
"The truth is, he had expressed to is family that he did want to go. He did want to go to heaven. He did want to die and he did want to go. He was ready to go. There was a certain amount peace -- a lot of peace, actually -- in the family get-together last night. I couldn't help but think that the world doesn't know that part of the senator at all," Tarrant said in a lilting Irish brogue.
As is part of the family tradition, Kennedy was surrounded by loved ones, including his wife, Vicki, his children and other relatives, the priest said.
"I was there last night when he died and the whole family were praying. They'd been praying all day, and it was a wonderful experience for me. I don't see it that often," Tarrant said. "It's commendable."
The Roman Catholic priest was called to Kennedy's bedside when Kennedy took a "serious turn for the worse" between 9 and 10 p.m.Tuesday, Tarrant said.
Kennedy died about 11:30 p.m., he said.
Tarrant said the public generally knows about Kennedy the politician, but in death, he said, he saw a more personal side that was deeply devout.
"I think the whole world knows certain parts very well, but I think there's another part of his life that very few people know, and that's his deep faith. His very deep faith in God and his love for his family," Tarrant said.
The priest recalled how Kennedy led the prayers following Kennedy's sister Eunice's death Aug. 11, even though he was debilitated by his brain cancer. He said it was clear it was Kennedy's faith that gave him strength.
"He was there and very reverent. I wish the world had known that part of him, but that was his secret. It was like it was the secret of his power, to be involved in doing good for others and it was what, I believe, drove him," Tarrant said.
He said priests pray for the faithful to go in peace and Kennedy did, comforted and consoled by his family.
"They were there and they were very prayerful and reverent and of course, crying," he said. "Of course they were aware that the very sick, the sense of hearing is the last thing to go. So, whatever is said around the sick bed is always heard by the patient ... and they were very well aware of it. They let him know how much he was loved and cared for and missed ... it was quite an experience, for me," he said.
National and State Reaction
Long before dawn, residents, press and Kennedy aides began gathering outside Kennedy's Hyannis Port compound, brought there by the news that Kennedy had lost his year-long battle with brain cancer.
In Boston, the center of Kennedy power and myth for decades, locals and politicians also reacted to word that the commonwealth's senior senator, who served the state for 46 years, had passed away.
"Sen. Kennedy was the real deal -- an authentic, principled and giving public servant who pushed us to work for things yet to be. His work eased our concerns, lifted us with opportunity and filled us with pride," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said.
"Boston has never had a greater champion. Massachusetts has never known a more relentless fighter for economic and social justice. America has never witnessed a more influential and productive legislator," Menino said.
"He was always the first one to call if you needed encouragement," U.S. Rep. John Tierney said.
“Never afraid to sail against the wind in the name of justice, equality and opportunity, Senator Kennedy was a treasured friend and a legislator without peer. Throughout his distinguished career, he helped bring health care to millions of children, enabled many young people to afford a college education and ensured that so many could realize the American dream," U.S. Rep. Ed Markey said in a statement.
President Barack Obama, vacationing nearby on Martha's Vineyard, offered his condolences to the Kennedy family, calling Ted Kennedy a "colleague, counselor and friend."
Obama said although everyone "knew this day was coming," it was anticipated "with no small amount of dread." Still, he said, the senator's battle with brain cancer allowed him the "blessing of time" for loved ones and public to "say thank you and goodbye" that wasn't given to Kennedy's brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated in the prime of their lives.
"His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and affect millions of lives," Obama said, adding that Kennedy was a "defender of a dream" for many Americans.
"He lived an extraordinary life and the good that he did lives on," Obama said.
Vice President Joe Biden wept as he talked about the passing of his longtime friend and senate colleague.
He said he served with Kennedy since Biden was elected at the age of 29 and Kennedy was 30. He said he was profoundly affected by Kennedy's infectious optimism.
"He was never defeatist. He never was petty ... He was never small," Biden said. "And in the process of his doing, he made everyone he worked with bigger. Both his adversaries and his allies."
Biden said Kennedy altered lives and helped change the way Americans saw themselves and saw each other.
"Every important event in my life ... every single one, he was there. He was there to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up," Biden said.
"I, literally, would not be standing here if it were not for Teddy Kennedy," he said. "He was there, he stood with me, when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He was on the phone with me, literally, every day, in the hospital."
Biden said Kennedy affected hundreds of people the same way.
"He's left a great void in our public life and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americans," Biden said.
He was ready to go, and we were ready for him to go...
I don’t think I’ve seen such blather in all my life!
BOSTON — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died in peace with his whole family and their lawyers, praying around him.
How can you say all that? God doesn’t work that way. You might not accept a deathbed confession, but how can you tell us God would not accept a death bed conversion? How can you make God into someone so small minded?
For many hundreds of years, Christians weren’t baptized until they made their death-bed conversions. It was considered the norm. A person would live an irrascable life and then hope that he knew when he was going to die so he could ask for a Priest to come and give him “last rites” which included a baptism. Men who were going off to war would confess their sins to a priest, get baptized and last rights before they left for war . . . that’s why so many castles had their own Priest on staff.
Someone whether Church or Laymen I know not, decided that baptism should be done as soon as a child was born and that would preclude the fear of not having a Priest around when a person died. And a tradition was born (and baptized.)
When a Catholic dies, the public thinks they have all the “should do’s” and the right to tell the well established and longest Christian faith extant how to act and what to say. This is a time for learning not a time for casting stones.
Ecclesiastes 3
A Time for Everything
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
10 ¶ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Judgement Day
Kennedy: “I guess you heard my requests for forgiveness?”
God: “yeah, nice try.”
So true.
How in the world do these cowardly non judgmental "Christians" ever hope to follow God's commandments to fight evil, and establish dominance of his word over it, when they refuse to call anything evil for fear of judging it, and "turning the other cheek" if it fights back and lands the first blow?
Sheesh.
No, God will judge the final destination of his soul. Teddy's flesh is dead. No doubt his soul has met the second death as well.
We can only speak as to the kind of person he was at this point. That isn't Judging him and deciding his fate, or handing out some kind of punishment for wrongdoings.
This stuff reads like ScrappleFace.
You may believe what ever you like but that doesn’t make it true. Just because you can’t read, don’t expect me to excuse you because I will not.
The truth of the matter is that unless we see some crumb of evidence that the swimmer confessed his many public sins and repented then guess what, pitch fork time for Ted. And the Cardnals and Bishops fighting amongst themselves to sprinkle holy water on the casket have no credability and no morals. And from the looks of it, neither do you but I hope I’m wrong.
He did his best to keep his attachment to the Catholic faith from us, that's for sure.
Hmmm...I thought Biden served on the confirmation committee hearings for Clarence Thomas along with Ted...guess he forgot about Ted's remarks during that liberal feed fest...
I am not quite convinced Teddy had repented, since he held his pro-abort position even to his death without publicly renouncing what he had done.
All I could think of is the opportunity he had wasted to teach others before leaving this earth. The song “house of the rising sun” by Animals comes to mind ... “mother, tell your children, not to do what I have done.”
Teddy had an obligation to confess publicly because of his position, in addition to private confession, to redeem himself. He was keenly aware that doing nothing would mean he wanted others to honor his legacy as a pro-abortion catholic and for that, it cannot be an act of repentance.
The “Kennedy priest”, I wonder if the same priest had given Teddy communion time and again while an unrepentent pro-abort politician. If so, I agree this priest should shut up instead.
I have.
"Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
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