Here's a characteristically slanted article from TIME magazine's Amy Sullivan, comparing the pastoral styles of Archbishop Raymond Burke and Cardinal Sean O'Malley. As a concrete example, she attempts to gauge their diverging stances on the appropriateness of the highly publicized (a key distinction) funeral Mass for Ted Kennedy. It should come as no surprise that the incurables at TIME magazine elected to take issue with Archbishop Burke; that alone should be interpreted as a feather in his cap. Further, Sullivan surely delights in exposing an alleged rift between two "conservative" prelates. But instead of focusing on the simplistic and uninformed broadsides proffered by Sullivan, I'd prefer to revisit the Cardinal O'Malley-Ted Kennedy Funeral Mass saga of a couple months ago, as it speaks to a larger problem facing the Catholic Church in the United States.
To be blunt, I'm getting pretty tired of hearing the O'Malley line of defense, which suggested that those who disagreed with him were marinating in malicious thoughts about Kennedy burning in hell, or that his grieving family ought not be comforted by the soothing consolations of the Church. Honestly, I don't know anyone who said or implied anything even approaching this. It's terribly unfair and intellectually dishonest to portray one's opposition in such a negative light. This kind of fallacy has a name: ignoratio elenchi, defined as "a logical fallacy that consists in apparently refuting an opponent while actually disproving something not asserted." O'Malley "refutes" his opposition by arguing against a position that was never made by those objecting to him in the first place! This is usually a favorite tactic employed by the left, but to hear it emanating from a man of O'Malley's intelligence is doubly disappointing. To be sure, there probably were some cantankerous individuals who conveyed inappropriate words to the Cardinal, but the vast majority of those who disagreed with him were not consumed with such uncharitable (and sinful) thoughts as hoping that someone was in hell.
No, people rightly took issue over the public nature of the funeral Mass (televised, etc.), given that there was/is no knowledge of Kennedy having publicly repented of his many years of publicly supporting the grave sin of abortion. O'Malley sat by as the nation's most pro-abortion President heralded the nation's most conspicuous pro-abortion Catholic politician from the ambo, and in the sanctuary of a basilica, no less. O'Malley sees nothing off kilter with such a conflicting mise en scène? He cannot see how large swaths of Catholics might understandably be totally confused, when, on the one hand, they are told by the Church leadership that there can be no compromise on abortion, and, on the other, they witness on television a Cardinal presiding at the funeral Mass for a radically pro-abortion politician like Ted Kennedy? How is this narrative to be interpreted? If the sorry spectacle didn't meet the requisites for scandal, I would then seriously like to know how Cardinal O'Malley would define the term. Ted Kennedy was a public figure, who publicly advocated what the Church and natural law tell us is a grave moral evil. The issue is emphatically not about Catholics pronouncing judgment on the man, as O'Malley strains to make it. Everyone hopes and prays (or should) that Kennedy privately confessed his support for abortion and died in God's grace. The point of controversy is the public nature of Kennedy's commitment to abortion and the conviction, on the part of many Catholics, that a public statement of remorse for the deed should have been obtained before a public funeral Mass was given the green light. Note to Cardinal O'Malley: We can pray, in fraternal charity, for Ted Kennedy's soul, and stand pat for life issues, all at the same time.
The Catholic leadership in this nation must be crystal clear when it comes to the priority given to the defense of the unborn. And further, they must avoid the smallest modicum of ambiguity on the matter. Otherwise, they have no business serving as shepherds of souls. Unfortunately, O'Malley's appearance at the televised funeral Mass for Ted Kennedy (during which not one reference to the unborn was offered) projected ambiguity. Why wasn't a private funeral service offered just for the family, instead of the media frenzy and spectacle we witnessed in Boston? Did we really need to see all that? Your Eminence, is it any wonder why so many Catholics in this nation think it's perfectly alright to go to Mass one day, then pull the lever in the voting booth for a committed pro-abortion politician the next? Did the bishops, starting with O'Malley, learn nothing from the '08 election, which saw a plurality of self-described Catholics opt for the pro-abortion candidate? Assessing the damage, didn't they for a second think they might need to reassess the effectiveness of their pastoral strategy, especially on life issues? Apparently not. The abject failure of O'Malley and others to detect this obvious dilemma evinces precisely the kind of episcopal detachment and aloofness that causes traditional Catholics in the trenches to scratch their heads in utter bewilderment. What on earth could be more clear than the dire need to refocus, with unrelenting energy, on informing the faithful, and all Americans, regarding the dignity of the unborn? I say, thank God for Archbishop Burke! Would that there were more like him in the ranks of bishops. The Catholic leadership in the US (not all but many) had better shed the blinders and realize, for the sake of souls, just how badly their guidance and witness is needed, most especially on the life issues.
The scribblers at TIME magazine ought not be the primary concern here. Writers like Sullivan and The New York Times' Maureen Dowd are thinly veiled ideologues parroting the predictable clichés and talking-points of the far left. The more pressing and relevant problem for serious Catholics is the gaping leadership void in the United States and the confusion that that void is unleashing on thousands of Catholics.
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