Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Posted on 07/14/2009 10:08:26 AM PDT by NYer
.- Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s recent Newsweek editorial claiming President Barack Obama represents U.S. Catholics better than Pope Benedict XVI has been attacked by one Catholic critic as “bogus and embarrassing.”
Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, in a July 9 Newsweek column claimed that the Catholic hierarchy ignores women’s equality and “gays’ cry for justice” because they cannot admit they are wrong.
She endorsed dissent from Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” which upheld traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception. She then promoted President Obama and attacked Church authority.
“American Catholics do not want to be told by the Vatican how to think,” she said, citing opinion polls on homosexuality and condom use.
She also cited Pope Benedict’s encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” about institutional charity, claiming that this was the Church opening up to “roles that for too long have been neglected.” Obama as a former community organizer “could teach the Pope a lot about politics – and what a Catholic approach to politics could entail.”
Predicting the interaction between President Obama and Pope Benedict at their meeting last Friday, Townsend said: “they'll politely disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality, but Catholics back home won't care, because they know Obama's on their side. In fact, Obama's agenda is closer to their views than even the Pope's.”
Catholic commentator Deal Hudson said Townsend’s column was arrogant and ignorant of American Catholics. He suggested she was self-contradictory in citing the authority of Pope Benedict to confirm President Obama as the more Catholic of the two.
He also insisted that her claim to represent the Catholic Church in the political arena is “bogus and embarrassing in its disregard for the truth as taught by the Church.” He characterized Townsend as a member of the Catholic family who has “done more to promote abortion” than any other.”
“Townsend and other Obama Catholics have tended to disregard the ‘Veritas’ side of the ‘Charity in Truth’ encyclical,” Hudson wrote, using the Latin word for “truth.”
Hudson also denied the accuracy of Townsend’s poll sources. He said the claim that American Catholics don’t want to listen to the Vatican is the equivalent of saying “American Catholics don’t want to be Catholic.”
Even when President Obama’s opinions match the views of dissenting Catholics, Hudson said that doesn't mean that the Pope should change the Church's teachings but rather that the Church “should do a better job of teaching and evangelization so that the pervasive dissent on issues like contraception and gay marriage is effectively addressed.”
Obama DOES more closely represent the views of millions of American “Catholics”, and The Church heirarchy, all the way up to the Vatican, is much to blame for that.
There are Roman Catholics and then there are CINOs...
Unfortunately, there are more of the later than the former in the U.S. House and Senate.
Don’t we have laws on the books that say the government has the right to confiscate all assets that may have been purchased with money that stemmed from criminal activity?
Isn’t that the justification for grabbing land, houses, autos, and bank accounts of criminals?
Then why haven’t all of the Kennedy assets been seized since they all trace back to rum running profits?
This Catholic begs to differ.
They have it all BASS-ACKWARDS! The POPE is not here to REPRESENT the ‘views’ of American Catholics.
He is here to represent the ‘teachings’ of Jesus Christ.
If the POPE were here to represent the views of American Catholics, he would be in conflict with the ‘teachings of Jesus Christ’!
And....yes! ‘POPE OBAMA’ does NOT represent the teachings of Jesus Christ!
I disagree.
If the abortionist (Obama) more closely represents America’s Catholics than the Pope, Then they should seek a new religion. They arent Catholic. That goes double for the Kennedy’s and Nancy Pelosi.
Maybe the Scientologists could use them.
Another “Catholic” who misbelieves that eternal truths are up for a vote.
“American Catholics do not want to be told by the Vatican how to think,” she said, citing opinion polls on homosexuality and condom use.
IIRC the Vatican has stated that its views on those issues are infallible. So you can either accept it or (formally)leave the Church.
Oh, that's rich coming from a Democrat! What the he!! is all the indoctrination in public schools about, Kennedy??
Excellent point!
The following is directed to Freepers who haven't donated or signed up for monthlies yet...
The hierarchy (satisfied?) has not clearly elucidated the correct view and consequences of improper adherence to the Church’s beliefs.
In today’s morally relativistic, no-consequences-to-be-paid culture that is more important than ever.
I am not referring to the self-motivated devout laity, but to the millions of casual catholics, who chicken and egg, have been allowed to become “casual”.
Well, BHO will need a job if the Congress can not fix that two term thingy in the next 7.5 years. And what better job could he have than Pope!
He’ll get to live in Europe, have people worship him, and with every action he will still get all the conservative to yell ‘Jesus Christ!’
What is it with the Kennedy family? Are they all bound and determined to opt for their own wills, for their own kicks, sins, and selfish indulgences? She is taking her own puny will and holding it up for everyone to see against the Will of God, against the Will of the One who gave her existence, only to prove herself to be mere fool.
Perhaps you missed my italics around Catholics.
Perhaps you missed my italics around Catholics.
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