I don’t have anything to say about the death of Sen. Kennedy other than to pray for his eternal soul.
But here comes the but. I do have something to say about the commentary on Sen. Kennedy especially as put out by Catholic sources. A lot of it puts forth that the Senator was a good Catholic except for his support of abortion. We get phrases like “mixed record” and that his political career supported the “heart of Catholic social justice.” It is all rather a whitewash and while it is worthy to not speak ill of the dead, it is also totally wrong to lie about the dead.
Sen. Kennedy who was once pro-life became quite a vigorous proponent of legal abortion. This much at least most of the Catholic articles reference kind of a as caveat so they could also praise him. No mention that he also supported contraception, cloning, ESCR, homosexual acts, homosexual marriage, and opposed the Defense of Marriage Act. When a Senate bill was put forth to attempt to save Terri Schiavo, Sen. Kennedy was the leader of the opposition. So when it came to five non-negotiable teachings of the Catholic Church, Mr. Kennedy was 0 for 5.
So the great good he was suppose to have done was in the area of great society efforts to use big government to help the poor and needy. This is not exactly the “heart of Catholic social teaching,” Catholics can prudently agree or disagree as to whether this approach actually helped those the programs were aimed at. People on both sides of this question certainly intended to help the poor. Many thought these programs would help out. Those who were opposed to these government interventions thought they would do more harm than good. In this area there is lots of room for Catholics to put forth how best our love of neighbor can be carried out since for the most part these are prudential questions.
So like I said it annoyed me to see articles put out by Catholics that so praised his votes for the big government approach as if it was the only approach that reflected Catholic social teaching. As if the requirement to be a great champion of the poor is to vote on stuff. Plus the moral relativity was quite evident in the phrasing that unfortunately he supported abortion, but look at all the social justice votes.
Now I understand these articles were trying to be balanced, but let us not pretend that he was a great Catholic except for his lapse on abortion. As annoying as these type articles are, leave it to the National Catholic Reporter to not mention any problem. Sister Maureen Fiedler wrote “He made me proud to be a Catholic” and was a champion of “women’s rights.” Patrick Madrid replied to this bit of nonsence.
Update: Wow, this article by the Catholic News Service via The Compass – Diocese of Green Bay by Jesuit Fr. William J. Byron is unbelievable. Nobody’s perfect: Remembering Ted Kennedy. He calls him a a truly great United States senator and makes no mention as to his support of abortion and laundry list of intrinsic evils. Though he thinks the Senator’s annulment was important to bring up and not his culture of death votes.
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How anyone can think of Ted Kennedy as a great man is beyond me. From Mary Jo Kopechne to his Benedict Arnoldry on abortion to his character assasination of Robert Bork which ensured that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned in his lifetime and a hundred million more babies would be slaughtered, to his relentless pro-abortion voting record…and even to his last dying moments where he tried to overturn a law he himself wrote to ensure that his replacement in the Senate would work tirelessly, just as he had, to ensure that faithful Catholics would have to pay for other people’s abortions.
Ted Kennedy was an awful human being and the world is better off without him.
Prepare for the canonization ceremony on Saturday. St. Edward of Taxachusetts, pray for us!
I agree: pray for his soul. Because, to quote the Catechism:
2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.
Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to “social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible.” (Pius XII, Discourse, June 1,1941.) This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, (Cf. Eph 6:4; Col 3:21.) or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.
2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!” (Lk 17:1.)
I know that there must be hope for Mr. Kennedy or there wouldn’t be hope for me.
What makes me squirm and shake my head is how much damage the Kennedy testimony has done in creating this false image of Christ’s Bride, the Church Catholic. I didn’t know that Catholics were prolife until Mother T. spoke to the Clintons.
To be fair to him, he was under tremendous pressure as a rich, famous, public figure. Also, he certainly had leadership in the Church that supported him all the way and probably gave him bad advice.
To me the greatest mystery is how so many of those in leadership could remain so silent for so long on such crucial issues (ie “five non-negotiable teachings of the Catholic Church”).
I think his passing is a part of the whole renewal. The 40 years of wilderness due to the rejection of Humanae Vitae is at an end and this sleeping giant, called the Church is awakening.
May God have mercy on Edward Kennedy and on the whole world.
I put in a comment on that Green Bay belch.
Let’s see if the Diocese has enough integrity to publish it.
What is truly sad is that the Bishop is allowing the treasure of the Bride of Christ – namely the privilege of a Catholic Mass (actually 2 Masses) to be said for this man who called the Bishops hypocrites for upholding the teachings of Christ, snubbed his nose at the teaching of Christ by supporting laws that are clearly against the teachings of Christ and His Church and is in fact excommunicated because of his support and legislation of abortion among other abominations. This is akin to a husband lavishing gifts on a harlot in front of his good, pure and holy wife scandalizing his children. To allow this man a Catholic Mass is a terrible disgrace and a scandal to all the faithful. Let us pray for Bishop O’Malley who I fear is in desperate need of prayer to allow this sacrilege. I wish he had the fortitude of Padre Pio – what a shame! What a disgrace!
Points in other blogs:
POINT:Ted Kennedy is responsible… Suggestions that we not speak of his atrocities is a symptom of a disordered formation of “charity”. Implying we should withhold… destructive policies and ideas were catastrophic… at the time of their deaths would and should be vigorously opposed.
COUNTERPOINT: It’s not a day to spew maledictions on the deceased, but neither is it a day for right-minded folk, in a fit of spiritual broadmindedness, to give him any special recognition.
FACT: This VERY PUBLIC leadaer of abortion-genocide… what treat will receive from O’Malley? The point is: his scandalous abortion push is to be overlooked by Rome?, and so mislead MILLIONS of ignorant Catholics into thinking that making abortion laws is OK?
Doctrine: manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful (unless)they gave some sign of repentance before death.
Lest we forget; the Kennedy family was pivotal in making it acceptable in the Democratic Party to be both Catholic and pro-abortion.
In some cases, church leaders actually started providing “cover” for Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a “clear conscience.”
The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book “The Birth of Bioethics” (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.
Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by the position of another Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position that “distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue.” It was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians “might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order.”
Father Milhaven later recalled the Hyannisport meeting during a 1984 breakfast briefing of Catholics for a Free Choice: “The theologians worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the evening we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though the theologians disagreed on many a point, they all concurred on certain basics . . . and that was that a Catholic politician could in good conscience vote in favor of abortion.”
Wow…Catholics bashing Ted Kennedy after his death. Who would of thunk it??? All I can say is thank goodness Kennedy didn’t let misguided beliefs affect his ability to legislate. This is typical, and further makes you look like fools.
Over here in the UK, people are remembering Ted Kennedy for different reason, his support for Irish terrorism. Let’s not forget that terrorism is also a culture of death, it just kills children after they’re born. As far as I know he was never reprimanded for this viewpoint either.