I disagree. Notorius public sinners who have misled numerous others into sin (including murder), need to make public the wrongs they have wrought and, in the case of politicians, let his voters know how to vote in the future.
Kennedy never made a public apology or repentance for his votes for abortion. He never instructed people to vote pro-life on his deathbed.
Private Last Rites for notorious public sinners doesn’t cut it for notorious sinners when they have been provided ample time to make public ammends.
But as it stands --- and remember Peters writes as a canon lawyer who has to interpret it as it stands --- what we're looking for is a manifest sign of repentance. A Catholic who has requested the Sacraments and has been absolved of his sins, is considered to have shown this outward "sign" of repentance.
We can't guess about his interior disposition.
Of course, he might never have truly repented. However, all the Church can go by, is what is manifest, not what is hidden in the heart. And as the law stands, all you need is "a" "sign," and, as you know, that's what a Sacrament is: an outward sign established by Christ to give grace.
IMHO, in any case it ought to have been a private Mass in the Kennedy compound chapel, with 50 kinfolk in attendance and no media.
Pray for mercy and skip the microphines, the massed choirs and the grand procession of highest-perched hierarchs.