Cardinal O'Malley Speaks

Cardinal O'Malley defended his decision on his blog to preside at the highly publicized Catholic Funeral Mass for Senator Ted Kennedy a couple of weeks ago. Frankly, the defense was a weak one, and that's being generous. With good reason, it could more accurately be called a LAME defense. In his piece, O'Malley describes Kennedy's jaw-dropping pro-abortion legislative record as simply a "disappointment" and goes on to ponder what might have been had the senator been on the front lines of the pro-life cause instead of being decidedly in the opposite camp. O'Malley then sings the praises of the Kennedy family tradition of Catholicism, especially as embodied in the matriarch, Rose Kennedy. Well, it's nice to wonder, to look back, and to wring our hands in speculative regret, but unfortunately O'Malley glosses over the central issue in his apologia, i.e., the scandal and confusion caused by a televised funeral MASS for a pro-abortion Catholic politician. (Never mind that the Mass itself, during the prayers of the faithful, was used in a shameless manner to showcase Ted Kennedy's legislative priorities on health care and other issues. You'd think the Cardinal could have insisted on the insertion of a prayer for the unborn at this juncture and, if there weren't any takers on reading it, he should have read it aloud himself. Another lost opportunity.) Ted Kennedy's long track record of supporting abortion and gay "marriage," all the while loudly touting his Catholicism is not just an "aw-shucks" disappointment, as O'Malley couches it. The public betrayal, on the part of Kennedy, of the core tenets of the Church's teaching on human life set a terrible precedent and was a poisonous scandal that, over the years, resulted in untold confusion and bewilderment among American Catholics. Kennedy's notorious penchant for argumentative calisthenics when it came to explaining away the glaring contradiction between his professed faith and his public record on life issues has been aped ad nauseam by large swaths of Catholics in this nation who, thanks to their Kennedy-tinted looking glass, see no problem whatsoever in voting "yea" on abortion "rights."

And what has the leadership in this country done to clear the air? Well, on the one hand, there are the voluminous pro-life statements emanating from the USCCB, the eloquent clarion calls that summon the faithful to rise to the defense of the unborn. Then, on the other hand, a prominent member of this august body presides at a public Funeral Mass for the nation's most conspicuous pro-abortion Catholic politician. (And another "prince" attends Kennedy's Catholic Rite of Burial in Arlington.) Just how are these conflicting words vs. deeds categories supposed to be squared away? How can Catholics take the leadership seriously the next time it talks about the imperative for Catholic voters to place the defense of the unborn at the top of the list when a man like Kennedy of all people is treated like Catholic royalty, another Charles V? This is not hyperbole. The televised Funeral Mass was grand in scale, with a Prince of the Church, several priests, the President and former presidents of the United States, together with members of Congress and the Supreme Court all in attendance. O'Malley's refusal to see a scandalous conflict of interests in terms of the public's perception of what was taking place and what was being tacitly approved with the Funeral Mass is nothing short of staggering. Remove the blinders, please!

It is a well-known fact that President Obama received a plurality of the Catholic vote in the last election. This sorry statistic should have played no small part in O'Malley's decision on the matter. It should have, but it didn't. It's no secret that a majority of Catholics in this nation are deeply confused about the Church's teaching on the question of abortion (or they simply disagree with it) and consequently give short shrift to the gravity of the issue when entering the ballot box. If the leadership refuses to take a bold stance on the issue by following up their words with deeds, why should the faithful? What is needed here is clear, unambiguous moral clarity and direction from those in charge, the bishops.

Amazingly, O'Malley seems to be unaware that the public spectacle of honoring a militantly pro-abortion politician via a televised Catholic Mass, all of which unfolded before his eyes and in his very presence, is the source of the totally justified outrage among faithful Catholics and defenders of the unborn.