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Teddy's Catholic Pain
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Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer on the private depth of the family patriarch’s Catholic faith, including his regular attendance of noontime Mass and how as a divorcee, it pained him to be refused Communion.
Ted Kennedy, whose health was in steadily deteriorating since he last appeared in Washington in May, declined sharply in the last few days, but it was a well-kept secret. A senior Kennedy aide from the Senate stopped me on a street corner Tuesday morning to ask what I knew, and we confessed our mutual ignorance. At the end, a Hyannis Port priest, Rev. Patrick Tarrant, described a last night full of prayer, from Kennedy and his family.
“The truth is,” the priest said, “he expressed to his family that he did want to go. He did want to go to heaven. He was ready to go.”
“The truth is,” the priest told the Boston TV station WCVB, “he expressed to his family that he did want to go. He did want to go to heaven. He was ready to go. There was a certain amount 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 Kennedy at all.”
While funeral arrangements were not announced in great detail, longtime Kennedy aides went quickly to work and announced that the senator’s body would lie in repose, not at the Capitol where he labored for more than 46 years, but at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Columbia Point in Boston, on Thursday and Friday. In lieu of flowers, mourners were urged to contribute to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate, the living memorial to be built close by. A memorial service will be held Friday evening at the library before Saturday morning’s funeral at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Saturday afternoon’s burial at Arlington next to his martyred brothers.
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The depth of Kennedy’s Catholic faith, something he never wore on his sleeve, was emphasized Wednesday. Father Tarrant called him “a man of quiet prayer.”
Then the senator’s office announced the church where his funeral will be held Saturday. The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is not the biggest church in Boston, but it has two pieces of history. First, as a silver plaque on a pyramid of crutches attest, in 1883 prayer cured Grace Hanley of a shattered spine. The church became known as the “Lourdes in the Land of the Puritans.”
Second, and probably much more to the point, Kennedy went to pray at the church when his daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen, was operated on for lung cancer in 2003, a cancer that a Baltimore physician had declared inoperable. Ms. Allen is fine with no evidence of recurrence.
The depth of Kennedy’s faith has rarely been a public matter, except when the church attacked his permissive view of abortion. But a few years ago he told another divorced Catholic how much it pained him to be refused Communion, although some priests did not object. Kennedy’s 1982 divorce from Joan Bennett Kennedy made him ineligible for Mass. The annulment he eventually won only became obvious when he took Communion from Bernard Cardinal Law at the 1995 Mass for his mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
After the annulment and his remarriage, he would often slip away from the Senate to attend a nearby noontime Mass with his second wife, Vicki Reggie Kennedy.
Father Tarrant described Kennedy’s faith as more than ritual. He told WCVB that Kennedy’s faith “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.”
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aperturemad
Oh Sky Cake why do you have to taste so good!?
larry278
I wonder if a friend who is a divorced & remarried former Roman Catholic who devoutly wishes to return to the Roman Catholic Church will read this. Some of former RC's have exceedingly bad memories of Holy Mother, the Church which preclude any return to the RC's. This isn't the time to bore others with a laundry list of our gripes that always become bigoted screeds.
cbeenthere
I agree, the RCC can bring bad memories.
cbeenthere
Well, you are correct larry, it turned into a screed just a few posts down.
larryfromkansas
In my neck of the woods, Kennedy (Whom people out here hate anyway and have been telling Chapaquiddick and nephew Willie Smith jokes since his passing.) would be damned for receiving an annulment.
It's sad that people forget their own faith when talking about someone else's beliefs. Here we see a man obviously immersed in the faith his mother gave him, losing it to ambition, drink and women, then finding that faith again.
This is a great story of a contrite heart. Those out my way who are so filled with hate toward Ted Kennedy could learn a thing or two from him.
swkidder
Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly. Some say that we are given two lives - the first in which we learn, and the second in which we move forward and make something of ourselves. Ted Kennedy is a shining example of someone who made a huge contribution to the lives of millions in this country, and that is how I shall remember him.
gak001
Hear, hear!
southernyankee
Swkidder, what a lovely thought. I think its sad that the so called religious people are judging Kennedy yet it is God's place to judge not ours. I have a feeling that god will weigh all sides of his life and I have a feeling he will get to heaven alot faster than someone who said God picked him to be president. Just sayin
jptryan
One minor detail. Senator Kennedy was the recognized leader of the pro-abortion movement in the Senate. As such he did everything in his power to ensure "legal" protection for the killing of tens of millions of innocent children. I hope and pray that he repented of that sin, but saw no mention of that by the good Father. When I die I will consider myself an abject FAILURE if Planned Barrenhood laments my passing as it does Senator Kennedy http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/planned-p arenthood-federation-america-mourns-loss-senator-edward-kennedy-30074.htm May God have mercy on his soul.
Bergen
Obviously, Senator Kennedy felt compassion for the tragic young women who found themselves unable to support children, or understood the futility of bringing profoundly defective children into the world only to suffer greatly and die within hours or days. I am always struck by the singular lack of human compassion of anti-abortion activists...recently, to the point of murder. The self righteousness of this group is breathtaking.
Theophanis
Not until yesterday did l find out through the news that Senator Edward Kennedy was a devoutly religious man.
Unlike many politicians and Presidents such as, Reagan, Bush sr., Clinton, Bush jr., and even Obama, did l ever hear Ted Kennedy say, "God bless you". "God bless America", May God bless you and may God bless America". "You are in my prayers",etc, etc, etc and etc.
This was also true of his brothers John and Robert.
Their religion was between themselves and their God.
THOROUGHLY ADMIRABLE!
Did not the constitution designate separation of church and state?
Too many citizens and politicians are justifying horrific actions in the name of religion.
CEASE AND DESIST AMERICA!
jptryan
That no one knew that he was a religious man leaves that claim suspect at best.
What "religious man" would champion the killing of millions of innocent children?
Or is your criticism that the good Senator justified this horrific action (supporting the demise of these children) in the name of religion? I'm confused.
jptryan
The author seeks to contine the myth of Camelot. Senator Kennedy's career was a self-imposed tradegy. Very sad when you think of what he could have done with such and awesome opportunity. That would explain why the author sugar-coated the reason the Senator will not have his funeral Mass at the Cathedral- to prevent the scandal of the Church honoring the most pro-abortion former member of the Senate (an honor he shares with the President).
May God have mercy on his soul.
southernyankee
I don't think you need to worry about his soul. Everyone has good and bad things happen to them. Just look at the republican party today with cheating husbands. Do you think that these men that live in The Family religious house in DC is going to get to heaven any faster than you or me or even Senator Kennedy. Please friend don't judge. Everyone blames the senator for the death of the girl. Yes he was responsible. But where was her responsibility going out with a married man. She was an adult. She new he was drinking. Why did she contribute to her own death?
jptryan
You say don't judge and then turn right around and blame Mary Jo for being killed by the drunk driving Senator Kennedy. Now that's cold. As cold as was the water the Senator left her in to drown that night while he hightailed it back to the Kennedy compound to take care his career. For all he knew she was in an air pocket gasping for breath waiting for the help the Senator did not seek for her, and dying a most terrifying death- alone... abandoned by the married man who drove her into her watery grave. And perhaps worse, he never took responsibility for killing her, instead giving a self-serving speech to salvage his career in which he rambled on for over five minutes and never once mentioned Mary Jo's name. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2324755/posts
ardeth
Pious, huh? Well, nobody's perfect.
hoosierbrad
Adam, it is not the divorce which prevented Sen. Kennedy from participating in communion, it was his re-marriage to another woman, before his first marriage was annuled by the Church
cbeenthere
That is correct hosierbrad, just backing you up
TK798999
It would have been great to see Teddy and other Kennedy family members speak publicly about their beautiful Catholic faith which will sustain them during this time of sorrow. The church could use some good PR (I say this as a Catholic) given the growing anti-Christian, anti-Catholic sentiment today in the media and in public education.
It's the end of an era with the passing of Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy. May he eternally rest in peace alongside his brothers.
Obama doesn't appear to be "mourning" the loss of his "friend" and major endorser (even though the Kennedy endorsement had little effect coming just before Super Tuesday primaries in 08 when Hillary won ALL of the major states handily and should be our President). Weird. As reported on ABC Obama "continues his vacation today (yesterday), going out for lunch and posing for photos". Huh?
Obama appeared cold and lacking in feeling as he spoke of his "friend" Sen. Ted Kennedy's passing today in comparison to Biden who seemed genuinely upset. Obama didn't appear to be "heartbroken". Strange and interesting. I don't see Obama giving a very heartfelt eulogy for Teddy, someone else should speak from the heart.
Teddy made a huge mistake in betraying the brilliant Clintons for the unqualified Obama. Teddy's judgment was not always the best...
Thank you Teddy for a lifetime of public service. I was a Kennedy volunteer in the 1980 Kennedy Presidential campaing. It was audacious for Ted to try to take down a sitting President of his OWN party in 1980 and lead to Pres. Carter's eventual defeat to Reagan. Wow. Ted accomplished many good things but did many bad things as well. The same notorious womanizer and boozer Teddy helped bring us Title 9, ADA, and SCHIP and No Child Left Behind with Bush. He was a man of contradictions personally and professionally.
Teddy lived a life of privledge and tragedy on a scale most of us will never experience.
May God forgive him his sins and Bless Him for his good works. May God rest his soul.
Condolences to his family
and may their beautiful Catholic faith sustain them in this time of great sorrow. Peace, all
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weonfiretonight
It's Cardinal Bernard Law, not Bernard Cardinal Law.
fredv55
Ted Kennedy was a Catholic in name only. I don't appreciate so called Catholics like him who don't follow the Church's teachings. May God have mercy on him and may he rest in peace.
jleachesq
I'm guessing Senator Kennedy's Catholic faith is not the same right-wing conservative intolerant reactionary Catholic faith that Newt Gingrich just signed on with.
jptryan
You're right there. His was the "Catholic" faith that allowed him to champion the modern day slaughter of the innocents we call abortion. Instead of celebrating his "accomplishments" those who stood side by side with Senator Kennedy would do well to join those of us who opposed his leadership of the pro-abortion movement on our knees as we pray for the repose of his soul and for the souls of the millions of innocent children he spent his career betraying to their deaths.
RobbyS
TK798999:
I don't know the state of his soul at the time of his death. I need to worry about my own first. However, I do not see how any Catholic can champion the most liberal abortion law in the western world, one which allows mothers to kill child at will. It may be he was deceived by his religious tutors, such as Father Drinan, who was, after all, by a considerable factor , smarter than the unintellectual senator. It maybe that the dissolute life he led, possibly because his faher and his brothers-lived such lives also, led to moral confusion of the worst sort that could lead him to believe that offering free abortions is actually a kindness. Well, Roe v. Wade liberated far more men than women, freeing them from any thought of obligation to the women they impregnated.
BellaFurie
The state of Teddy Kennedy's soul at the time of his death is between him and God. But he contributed to the impression that eminent Catholics could obtain privilege in the same way that favours could be purchased before the Reformation.
The annulment of his marriage did not appear to meet the stringent requirements that ordinary Catholics endure. - Both he and Joan were baptized, they were free to marry, and the marriage was consummated. Was he or Joan oblivious to the commitment required by marriage when they wed? Was either of them insane at the time?
It seems most likely that some slippery interpretation of a mature understanding of marriage was endorsed by his pals in the Church. No wonder people regard the Church as corrupt.
janet1003mn
I do not know under what conditions Ted and Joan Kennedy were granted their annulment. I do know that there is a complex set of rules governing annulment in the Roman Catholic church; it seems presumptuous to question whether or not their annulment was within those rules of a "privilege" that the Kennedy family "purchased." For more information about reasons for annulment this web site contains a lot of information:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rickpen16/catholicmarriages/id17.html
If you Google "reasons for annulment" you'll find many additional sources.
cbeenthere
Bella and janet
The RCC grants annulments freely now, but will not abandon the intrusive process, and leave it to the conscience of those involved. Kennedy did not have any more clout than others, none needed.
Thank you.
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