August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Saturday's grandiose Catholic funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy has the potential to be a scandal that will make Notre Dame's Obama Day a walk in the park. With all four living former Presidents in attendance and an address from President Barack Obama, the funeral is set to be a royal crowning, right inside a Catholic Church, of a man who betrayed the most fundamental moral teachings of the faith.
What example will this give to Catholics and the rest of the world looking in? It will surely belie the Catholic teachings on the sanctity of life and sexuality. "Surely," they will say, "if one of the most vociferous proponents of abortion and homosexuality in politics is so feted in the Church, the Church cannot possibly regard abortion as murder." Would anyone so honor one who so advocated what the church officially considers an "unspeakable crime"?
Rev. Patrick Tarrant, pastor of the Church where Kennedy is to be buried has informed the media that he was present at Kennedy's death and thus hopefully the senator made a last confession and was reconciled with the Church.
However, only a public repudiation of his militantly anti-life and anti-family actions would serve to lessen the scandal of the upcoming funeral extravaganza.
I don't discount that that might be coming. After all, Kennedy did have President Obama deliver a letter to the Pope when Obama made his visit to the Vatican in July. Although unlikely, given the Senator's recent, intense support for Obama's health care reforms, perhaps there was a public confession in the letter waiting to be released. We can hope and pray.
If we assume a private confession was made there could be a private funeral Mass for the family, without politicians and media. And of course there would still be a secular memorial event, with all the pomp and ceremony for this star of the secular world.
Who can disagree with Westen's assertions? I applaud him for having the temerity to write so forcefully on this matter. No one is judging Sen. Kennedy. As Westen says, we all hope that the senator died in God's grace. That is something solely between God and Kennedy. The more pressing matter here is the public nature of Kennedy's Catholicism and his regrettable support for unacceptable positions so contrary to the moral law.
At least with Notre Dame scandal, the main culprit was a rogue, freewheeling priest/president of the university; the bishops, for their part, made their disapproval known quite clearly. The high-profile Kennedy funeral,on the other hand, will unfold inside a Catholic basilica of the Boston Archdiocese. And to make matters worse, there has been a deafening silence from the leadership to boot. "The Death of Outrage" rings true once more. Where is Cardinal O'Malley's voice in all of this? Are faithful and exasperated Catholics simply expected to sit idly by, once more, and watch helplessly as the integrity of the Church's teaching is fogged-up as a result of a glaring lack of moral clarity and leadership? The whole thing is just totally surreal. How can confused Catholics be expected to take the moral teaching of the Church seriously (especially on abortion) when these kinds of mixed signals are proffered by the church leadership in America?
Well, we can hope, as Westen writes, for an upcoming public recant of previously held views. That would go a long way.
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