On Ted Kennedy

Lots of thoughts are darting around in my head and in the press regarding Sen. Kennedy's death and legacy. The media's fawning, while totally in character, is over the top, of course, but on the other hand, one does not want to turn bitter either. The Gordian Knot is obvious: Kennedy's professed Catholicism and his simultaneous, unrelenting dissent from the Church on the most fundamental issues of natural law, i.e., his staunch advocacy for abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and gay "marriage." The American Life League issued a statement marking his death which I think is mightily appropriate:

"For 50 years, the Kennedy brothers struggled to reconcile their Catholic faith with the public square. Sen. Edward Kennedy’s legacy will, sadly, remain compromised in the eyes of faithful Catholics.

Kennedy’s claimed to be a Catholic while using his worldly power to condone and facilitate the deaths of innocent preborn babies. Kennedy emphatically defended their right to life in 1971, but tragically abandoned his Catholic principles as his presidential aspirations rose toward the end of that decade.

By breaking faith, Kennedy set a catastrophic precedent for “Catholic” public officials to publicly dissent from fundamental Church teachings while continuing to identify themselves as Catholics.

As Senator Edward Kennedy’s death provides a platform for others to applaud him as a historic figure, we mourn the loss of only God knows how many preborn children – lives snuffed out by this man’s advocacy of abortion. God have mercy on his soul.

We extend our prayer to his family during this time of loss. As his death brings an era to a close, we pray that it will also mark a new era in which American Catholics will set a far more faithful standard for Catholic conduct in public life."

I will only add that, in the future, America needs more Thomas More's than Ted Kennedy's.