Posted on 08/29/2009 7:47:37 PM PDT by Balt
8:30 AM 8/30/2009 — Every once in a while something happens in current events that requires a conscientious priest to deviate from the Gospel lesson of the day; although it may be Divine Providence that the event I need to address with you relates very well not only to today’s Gospel lesson, but also the feast we just celebrated. I am speaking, of course, of the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and his very public funeral which was viewed by millions on television. The question you should have asked when you saw it was, “Should Ted Kennedy have been given a public funeral in a Catholic Church?” And you were right to ask it, because the answer is clearly, “No”, and this for two reasons.
Without presuming upon the state of anyone's soul before God, Mr. Kennedy fulfills all the requirements of Canon Law for what is called a "grave public sinner." This is, first of all, because of his very public stand on abortion. Were Mr. Kennedy a private person not in legislative office, without the ability to direct how our tax dollars are spent, his personal opinion regarding abortion would, most likely, not be an issue as pertains to whether he should be given Christian burial; after all, we don't investigate the private opinions of our parishioners when they die to see if we should bury them. But as a government official, Mr. Kennedy occupied a special category. The Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church is specific on this issue, and I would like to quote it for you:
Can. 1184 §1 Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following, unless they gave some signs of repentance before death:
1° notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics;
2° those who for anti-christian motives chose that their bodies be cremated;
3° other manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful.
Unfortunately, the whole concept of "scandal" seems to have been forgotten in our society; but its effects are quite obvious. There is no way that an average Catholic, watching the spectical of Roman Catholic funeral rites on television, cannot conclude that the whole "abortion thing" just isn't all that important after all.
But regardless of how one views the whole question of Catholic politicians and abortion, there is an even more objective reality at play here: Mr. Kennedy lived the last years of his life in an objective state of mortal sin. His petition to have his first marriage to his wife, Joan, annulled was denied by the Church. Some of you may remember that case. After his divorce he married again outside the Church, then applied to the Archdiocese of Boston for an annulment to his first marriage, which he received very quickly. But his wife, Joan, appealed that decision all the way to Rome; and the Roman Rota, the court at the Vatican that decides appeals to annulment cases, ruled that Kennedy’s marriage to Joan was valid and could not be annulled. This means that, as far as the Church is concerned, he was still married to Joan when he died, that the woman he subsequently married outside the Church has never been his wife, and they have been living in very public adultery ever since. If that doesn't qualify as someone who is a "manifest sinner to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful" as Canon Law says, then there must be no such thing. Unfortunately, to many American Catholics today, there is no such thing as scandal. Joan Kennedy, who remains a faithful Catholic, went on to write a book about her experience fighting the annulment of her marriage, in which she catalogs the culture of corruption that existed in the Archdiocese of Boston, where money could buy anything, including an annulment; and she anticipated, in a veiled way, how that corruption would eventually come back to explode to the detriment of the Church; as it did some years later when it became public that Cardinal Law and his predecessors had, for years, covered up the sexual abuse of children by many of their priests.
Now, don't misunderstand me. Neither I nor any other priest have a window into any man's soul. That's not the point; and I'm not passing judgement on Mr. Kennedy. The issue is not whether the Church has certainty that he is not saved; the Church has never claimed that kind of knowledge. The issue is that, objectively, he was living in a state of life that appears sinful to others;—even if, by a twist of God's mercy or mental incapacity, it is not—and that appearance is enough to warrant the Church giving some care for the tender state of the souls of the faithful, that they not be misled about the requirements of the Gospel. Even if we could conceed that some sort of funeral Mass should take place, does it take a lot of brain power to understand that it should have been done privately, with the family only, without the television cameras, and certainly without a speach by the most anti-christian, pro-abortion president our country has ever had?
So, why did Mr. Kennedy receive a very public Catholic funeral with all the trimmings? And why was a clear enemy of the Church permitted to preach a eulogy? Simple. Those responsible for making those decisions are "Tames." “Tame” is a derogatory term used sometimes by priests to describe a priest or a bishop who refuses to fight; someone who, when faced with a difficult decision, will always find a way to make it someone else’s responsibility; someone who, like water flowing down a country brook, always seeks out the path of least resistance whenever a thorny problem is at hand.1 Cardinal O'Malley, for example, was chosen Archbishop of Boston because he had a knack for holding the hands of the victims of clerical sex abuse, crying with them and feeling their pain;—he's very good at it because he's a very kind and good man—but a courageous defender of the Gospel in times of persecution he is not; most likely, he doesn't even recognize that we live in a time of persecution. The cadre of white-haired Irish monsignors who populate the ranks of his presbyterate are Bostonians; and religion—as well as politics—in Boston is decidedly tribal: when push comes to shove, you do what's good for the tribe, not for the Church or the country. That's why, for generations, Irish Catholics in Boston have continually voted for pro-abortion politicians, claiming all the while that they're faithful Catholics. Nothing trumps blood for them.
In the end, faithful priests around the country will have to do their best to try to persuade their flocks that the Kennedy funeral they saw on TV was a mistake, and find some way to reinforce the truth of the Catholic Faith. The really sad part is that, in teaching the truth of the Faith to their parishioners, they must continually dodge the road blocks thrown in their way by the leaders of the very Church they have given their lives to serve.
Yesterday, the same day as this funeral, we celebrated the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. And why was John beheaded? The Gospel for yesterday tells us: King Harod had entered into an invalid union with a woman he was not entitled to marry, and John wouldn’t shut up about it. He was becoming an embarrassment; so, Harod shut him up, permanently. It isn’t surprising that the Gospel of the day wasn’t read at the Kennedy funeral.2
To be sure, we should certainly pray for the soul of Mr. Kennedy, as I would encourage you to pray for anyone regardless of what you may think of him personally; but, in doing so, let’s be sure we don’t lie to ourselves about it. In today’s Gospel lesson, our Lord tells a familiar parable. The tenants who had leased the vineyard forgot that they didn’t own it; and when the owner demanded an account, they responded with disrespect and violence. The Pharisees and the Hebrew priests who were present in the Temple that day were not stupid; they knew our Lord was speaking about them; St. Matthew tells us as much. But our Lord is also speaking to us; for God has also entrusted to us a vineyard. Life is not something we own for ourselves, to do with as we please, according to our own rules; our life is something we have on loan from God for a while; and, when it is over, we will be required to give an account to the owner. To help us, God has given us a Church and sacraments as fountains of grace and life. He has given us the Gospel as a path to heaven. He has placed in our own hands the tools of salvation and eternal life. And the day will come when he will ask for an account of how well we have harvested the seeds that he has provided.
The fact that this Gospel is presented to us on the weekend of this unfortunate funeral should not be dismissed as coincidence; for it reminds us of a very hard yet very important truth: Life is not really a gift from God, it’s a loan; and we never know when that loan will be called.
by Father Michael Venditti
1 For a more detailed illustration of the whole phenomena of "Tames" in the Catholic Church, search for last year's post by the Pugilist about the current Archbishop of Washington, entitled "That Pepsodent Smile."
2 To be fair, it is not usually the custom in the Latin Church to read the Gospel of the day at funerals. In the Eastern Churches of the Byzantine Tradition, if a funeral is celebrated on a feast day, the Gospel of the feast would be read, with the option of adding a Gospel for the departed afterward; thus, two Gospel would be read at the service, with the same arrangement applied to the Epistle. But the situation rarely occurs since funerals are not ordinarily permitted on feast days. Strictly speaking, this isn't really done in the Latin Church, either; but, if this is Boston and you're a Kennedy, you can get anything you want.
Whew...
That’s powerful...
Thanks for posting this. -It’s a great read. This is the sort of man who should be leading the Church.
The Roman Catholic Church missed a golden opportunity to demonstrate moral leadership. It comes off as hypocritical to condemn abortion and adultery and then bury an individual that embodies everything the church is against. It has many wondering about the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
I may be wrong but I thought that Ted Kennedy’s first marriage had received a Catholic Church annulment — that the Kennedy annulment that was “taken back” was re the marriage of Robert Kennedy’s son Joe.
Finally a priest who does not pull punches about the Kennedy burial. I felt like standing up at the computer and cheering.
It seems to me there is no particular official position. A Roman Catholic who happened to have notoriety died, and he had a Roman Catholic funeral.
Or have I missed something here?
I wish this Priest could become the Archbishop of the Diocese that includes Washington, DC.
From my post to God’s ear to Pope Benedict XVI?
ping
Actually, you haven't missed a thing. What's missing, if I may be so bold, is leadership in the Church that is able and willing to clarify the vagaries that a situation like this brings to the fore. The law of the Church can't cover every conceivable circumstance, nor should it try to. That should be left to the priest or bishop concerned in a particular situation, with charity, comapassion, but above all with fidelity and truth. Unfortunately, that requires that the priest or bishop concerned possesses those qualities.
Thanks! This was fantastic. I’m going to forward this to my Catholic friends.
Father Michael Venditti is a good man, likely a good priest.
In his statement on Kennedy’s marriage and annulment I think he is confusing Sheila Rauch Kennedy’s sucessful appeal of her annulment from Joseph P. Kennedy II.
As to the rest, no argument from me.
what about the catholic unborn children in the letter to the pope?
“Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a United States senator. I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone. I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and on our church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.”
Btw, does this mean Kennedy gets to go to heaven?
From the pope:
“An account from the Vatican of the pope’s response, according to McCarrick:
“The Holy Father has the letter which you entrusted to President Barack Obama, who kindly presented it to him during their recent meeting. He was saddened to know of your illness, and asked me to assure you of his concern and his spiritual closeness. He is particularly grateful for your promise of prayers for him and for the needs of our universal church.
“His Holiness prays that in the days ahead you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God, our merciful Father. He invokes upon you the consolation and peace promised by the Risen Savior to all who share in His sufferings and trust in His promise of eternal life.
“Commending you and the members of your family to the loving intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, comfort and strength in the Lord.”
Correction: Those who have challenged my identification regarding which annullment was overturned are right. Father got his annullments mixed up. Sorry for the error. Everything else, however, looks good.
Can't say I blame her for doing this...she had three children with this man, and him having the marriage "annulled" after its being fruitful demeaned her into the role of concubine all those years, not his wife.
Make this man pope!!
Unfortunately, it will do nothing to dampen the celebration that the media and the Beltway have invented. I had the television muted for most of the day/evening. Outside of media cocktail parties, political circles, and the People's Republic of Massachusettstan, not many folks give a rat's patoot about that man. Good grief ... they acted like he was a national treasure. Kuck the Fennedys.
Oh man, what an amazing article. I hope the higher-ups in Kennedy’s diocese read this.
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