Posted on 11/07/2004 4:07:47 PM PST by Lilllabettt
Boston Prelates…
Deny Kerry Got An Annulment
By ROBERT K. DORNAN
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The former archbishop of Boston, Bernard Cardinal Law, and his successor, Archbishop Sean O’Malley, have stated that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry never received an annulment from the Archdiocese of Boston.
Although major newspapers and magazines, such as Time and The New York Times, when reporting on Kerry’s Catholic beliefs, have said that Kerry applied for an annulment from his first wife, Julia Thorne, from both the Boston and Washington Archdioceses, they have not claimed that he ever received an annulment, often leaving the reader with the implication he did.
Kerry himself has joked about his annulment, though he never said he actually received one.
During brief conversations with Law and O’Malley, following the funeral Mass for Washington’s James Cardinal Hickey at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on October 30, both archbishops responded to my direct questions on whether or not they had ever granted Kerry an annulment from his first wife.
As a procession of bishops left the cathedral, I approached O’Malley, and asked: “Did you ever hear of, or know of, or did the archdiocese under you, grant Kerry an annulment for his first marriage?”
His answer was instantaneous: “Absolutely not; no, nothing since I have been there.” He was emphatic.
About an hour later, after Cardinal Law left the shrine, he was speaking to two prominent pro-life leaders, and I approached him. He was very pleasant. We reminisced about Cardinal Hickey and the March for Life, and about Cardinal Hickey’s wonderful pro-life candle vigil in front of the White House, which he organized to implore President Bill Clinton not to veto the ban on partial-birth infanticide.
After pleasantries about what a great city Rome is, and talking about some of the notable art in the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore and the gift of the gold ceiling from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, I said to him: “Your Eminence, the other week, on the Don Imus radio show in New York, Kerry said one of these years he’ll get around to getting an annulment, but other news reports claim he does have an annulment.”
I told him that there is a new book out by George Butler with photographs of Kerry’s Cape Cod justice of the peace wedding. “So, I must ask you, did Kerry get an annulment during your tenure as archbishop of Boston?”
Cardinal Law replied: “No, he did not, never under me.”
I reminded Law that an annulment controversy with Joe Kennedy ended his race for governor, when he couldn’t get a quick annulment from the Boston Archdiocese. “So it is important, and the national media are refusing to even discuss his supposed annulment,” I said.
“If Kerry wins,” I pressed on, “this will be a disaster for our Church.”
Law replied: “I know, he is wrong on every moral issue.”
Just before I spoke with Law, I spoke with a Boston priest who had studied in Rome during the time when Kerry allegedly sought an annulment in the late 1990s.
The priest approached me while I was speaking with the head of the military ordinariate, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, and he told me that he had heard me asking about Kerry. He volunteered that he had heard, while in Rome, that Kerry had approached the Vatican for an annulment, but was refused “on lack of grounds.”
What was obvious in my conversations with four archbishops, including a very brief exchange with Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, is the high level of concern among the prelates of what a Kerry presidency will mean for the Catholic Church, not only in the United States, but abroad.
Archbishop O’Brien shared my concerns about Kerry, including eliminating the Dornan law which bans abortions in military hospitals with U.S. Defense dollars. O’Brien ventured that Kerry, like Clinton, has threatened to veto, on his first day on the job, every abortion-limiting piece of legislation on the books, including embryonic stem-cell research and the Mexico City policy.
I reminded him that when Clinton opened up the gates to military abortions, every wonderful doctor in the military said, “We haven’t done that for 15 years, and we are not about to start,” and so Clinton decided he would hire civilian abortionists and post them near military bases. The 1994 election turned the House of Representatives over to Republican leadership, however, and I became chair of military personnel. The first thing I did was to reinstate the Dornan ban on military abortions.
O’Brien responded that it will be so hard on Catholics in the military if Kerry wins, adding: “You know, the tragedy here is so many Catholics are voting for Kerry.”
I replied that Catholics who go to church every Sunday will not be voting for Kerry, and he answered back, “Oh, yes, even some of those.”
I thought of Archbishop O’Brien’s observation the next day when I saw that the mayor of Washington, Anthony Williams -- an alumnus like myself of Loyola High School in Los Angeles -- went to Communion at Cardinal Hickey’s funeral Mass. He reminisced after the formal Mass about his friendship with Hickey, and then he was off to St. Louis to campaign for Kerry.
“Amen!”
My contact with Cardinal McCarrick was very brief. After the funeral cortege headed toward St. Matthew’s Cathedral, McCarrick walked by me with his monsignor-secretary to his car.
I good-naturedly called out: “Your Eminence, are you praying hard for Kerry’s defeat?” He smiled and emphatically responded with a loud, “Amen!”
I responded, “His victory will make your job much, much harder,” and he responded, “Amen!”
Is it a mere coincidence that this is report AFTER 11/2? My my.
Strictly speaking, it was likely not denied. He likely never pursued a case very diligently, or there simply wasn't the grounds to pursue one.
If a marriage case is accepted by a diocese, it is unusual for an annulment not to be granted.
I think maybe this article belongs in the main news section.
I have said repeatedly over the past year on kerry annulment threads that I doubt that he has gotten the annulment, or he certainly would have made the fact public.
This is a religious matter, but it is also a highly important political matter, not only as it applies to kerry, but as it probably applies to folks like Teddy Kennedy. I haven't yet heard that Kennedy has been granted his annulment.
Don't blame the timing on the Wanderer. It was O'Malley and Law who remained mutes during the election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.