[Salvation]

However, is Father Orsi forgetting this?

We have no idea if Senator Kennedy had a deathbed re-conversion. We cannot judge.

Beginning Catholic: The Anointing of the Sick: Comfort and Healing [Ecumenical]

[BlackElk]

While it is certainly not for us to judge the ultimate destination of Teddy's soul, we certainly can and should bear witness to the many evils that marked so much of his life.

Any number of things, including an acceptance of a grace of final repentance, sincere sacramental repentance and forgiveness of his sins (God is wonderful and can do anything and can forgive anything) may have opened heaven's gate for him or not.

God will judge these matters and, by definition, His judgment will be just.

[kellynla]

"However, is Father Orsi forgetting this?"

It appears that you have forgotten this.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to evil… and that it takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it”(n. 2284-85). For such a person the Code of Canon Law says, “Church funeral rites are to be denied to the following (unless they gave some sign of repentance before death): manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful” (c. 1184.3).

And, for starters, I don't recall hearing Ted Kennedy EVER make a public announcement that he regretted the years he spent in the U.S. Senate voting for abortion "rights". Do you?

[A.A. Cunningham]

If Kennedy had the time to write a letter to the Massachusetts legislature about changing the rules to pick his successor he certainly had the time to pen a letter to the world confessing his numerous public sins and telling us how wrong and sorry he was for offending God. He didn't.

[Bodleian_Girl]

Wouldn’t the fact that Kennedy repented on his death bed be something the Church would want people to know?

I mean, imagine if Ted Kennedy repented of all the years of his support for abortion? Wouldn’t we hear even some whisper of that?

All that having been said, having watched my sister - in - law die of brain cancer, she was not able to communicate at all for more than a few weeks before her death occurred.