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Edward Kennedy’s Catholic Funeral
by American Phoenix | September 8, 2009
I was not a fan of the late Senator Edward Kennedy. I was not a fan of Senator Kennedy when I lived in Massachusetts for three years in the 1980s. Senator Kennedy took positions on countless issues with which I disagreed on first principles. Had Senator Kennedy been just another politician, I may not have felt these disagreements so viscerally. But he wasn’t just another politician. He claimed to be Catholic.
As a Catholic politician for an electorate with a large percentage of Italian and Irish Catholics (of which I was, for a time, a part), I expected Senator Kennedy to represent our common values. These values include, among others, the right of every human being to life and the right of a child to both a mother and a father. Sadly, Senator Kennedy, abandoned one Catholic teaching after another, whether it be the innate value of human life (abortion, embryonic stem cell research), or the right of a child to both a mother and a father (homosexual marriage). Indeed, even his push for universal health care disrespected a person’s right to life because every plan so far has included abortion and some include the promotion of euthanasia or rationed care that has the same result (see Section 1233 of HR 3200, for example).
While Senator Kennedy touted the Christian virtue of charity particularly with respect to government health care, he nevertheless did violence to the principle of subsidiarity, which is an organizing principle that states that matters ought to be handled by the least centralized competent authority. This is a very important principle in Catholic social teaching; but that’s not all. It’s also the Tenth Amendment (which according to my law school professors is a dead letter. I can only wonder why, since it hasn’t been repealed).
Catholics have been treated miserably in the United States for much of its history. Even in Maryland, a colony founded for religious toleration of Catholics, Catholics were persecuted after the political situation in England changed. When William and Mary ascended to the crown of England, they deprived Maryland Catholics of their rights. In 1692, all the penal laws of England that were in force against Catholics, were declared to be in force in Maryland. Catholics could not vote, could not hold office, could not enter the professions (Catholic attorneys were disbarred), and were required to support the heretical state Church of England. Ultimately, the practice of the Catholic faith was forbidden, priests were forbidden to exercise their duties (and many of them were martyred doing so), parents were prohibitted from teaching their faith to their children, and Catholic children were encouraged to rebel against their parents. Religious monasteries were dissolved and any priests who refused to take an oath of allegiance was deported. A population of 8,000 Catholics in Maryland was served by maybe four or five priests, undoubtedly in secret. All of this in Maryland, just as in England.
American history books make little mention of the persecution of Catholics in this country. They make little mention of the fact that the Quebec Act was considered one of the Intolerable Acts precisely because it guaranteed the free practice of the Catholic faith. My high school American history text book, of which I am still in possession, gives less than one page to the Quebec Act and emphasizes that “the lesson that the colonists learned was that the supremacy of Parliament meant an end to the power of their own representative assemblies and courts, an end to the right of trial by jury, an end to every political principal they held dear.” Conveniently left out, was the fact that the colonists largely hated Catholics. Maryland was ample evidence of it.
Nevertheless, Catholics fought for the United States, despite the misgivings and mistrust that they likely had for their Protestant neighbors. The history books also make no mention of the fact that the Catholic parochial school system was founded because the rudimentary public education system often had a heavily fundamentalist Protestant (and blatantly anti-Catholic) cast.
So it was a real breakthrough when John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. One of the greatest “glass ceilings” had been broken.
But the victory was to be short-lived, if it was really achieved in the first place. John F. Kennedy’s famous faith speech fell short in the eyes of many American Catholics. Later, when Senator Edward Kennedy did an about face and became a proponent of contraception, abortion, homosexual marriage, embryonic stem cell research - in short, reversed course on every fundamental natural human truth - he disappointed every faithful Catholic in America. Instead of being able to look up to the Kennedy’s as American Catholic heros, faithful American Catholics felt a sense of betrayal. We weren’t to be great because of our values; rather, we would be great if we gave them up. (Apparently, we weren’t even to be great because of our distinctly American values.)
Coming from one of the foremost Catholic families in America, Senator Edward Kennedy led the charge for Catholic politicians such as Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Rudy Giuliani, Mario Cuomo, Patrick Kennedy and Kathleen Sebelius, to abandon the principles of their faith in favor of raw political power. Kennedy was the crack in our culture which other, perhaps more malicious, hands pried wide open, leaving a raw, bloody wound no less than it had been flesh.
Is it any wonder that faithful American Catholics wonder at the scandal of Senator Kennedy’s Catholic funeral? And yet, even though I was deeply disappointed - and at times deeply disgusted - by Senator Edward Kennedy, I cannot begrudge him a Catholic funeral. He had a right to it under conditions which I cannot judge, though the public spectacle should have been kept to a minimum and though perhaps Cardinals O’Malley and McCarrick should have not have graced the funeral and interment with their presence.
Certainly, Senator Kennedy had family who loved him and whom he loved and they deserve our prayers and consolation. Most importantly, I was not Senator Edward Kennedy’s priest and confessor. I would have no idea whether he showed some sign of repentence prior to his death, as 1983 CIC 1184 requires. That opinion must be left to the “boots on the ground” as it were and Cardinal O’Malley has had the last word.
Nevertheless, as one priest wrote in to Fr. Zuhlsdorf:
My problem is that it was not a Catholic Funeral. This was not a Funeral. It did not follow the Novus Ordo. The whole “celebration” was focused on Ted Kennedy and what a great man he was. It seemed that he was not in need of salvation, forgiveness, mercy, grace, etc. That would not have been proper if he were had been Mother Teresa herself. Catholic Funerals are not about the person’s past achievements. Since Holy Mass is part of it, first of all, the Funeral is about worship of God. Secondly, it is a profession of our Catholic Faith. Thirdly, Holy Mass is offered for the repose of the deceased immortal soul and asking God’s mercy on him. Fourthly, we pray for the consolation of those who mourn. Ted Kennedy’s Funeral did not even follow even the guidelines of the Archdioceise of Boston. (emphasis added; Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s interlineated commentary deleted)
Thus, aspects of Senator Kennedy’s funeral remain problematic, even if a Catholic funeral was proper. Cardinal O’Malley does, however make a good point:
At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church. If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness, it will be doomed to marginalization and failure.
Scandal in the Church is usually motivated by judgment that the Catholic faith is somehow lacking, and anger and vindictiveness directed at its members. Scandal is a danger precisely because it is often used as a tool to divide the faithful. I agree with the Cardinal.
Topics: Abortion, Catechetics, Catholic, Christianity, Contraception, Culture of Death, Euthanasia, Family, History, Homosexuality, Politics, Religion |