Posted on 08/27/2009 10:41:06 AM PDT by NYer
Well, I feel as if I've finally "arrived."
True, over the years my name has been mentioned disparagingly a few times in the pages of America, but what appeared in its online edition today has reached a whole new level of invective (even by America's standards of invective).
I responded yesterday to Sr. Maureen Fiedler's obit piece on Senator Ted Kennedy in NCR ("He Made Me Proud to Be Catholic"), and my comments obviously hit a raw nerve among that community of disciples over at America, as evidenced by my being roundly chastised by one of their writers today.
Honestly, I don't think my remarks were in any way untoward, but clearly that writer disagrees. In just six irrate paragraphs, he manages to brand me me a "boor," a "loudmouth," "ignorant of history," "callous," "inhumane," "indecent," and "hateful" — all the while insinuating that my comments on this issue (and those of other pro-life people) are simply a "rant."
Kettle, meet Pot. Pot, meet Kettle.
Here is the exchange:
From National Catholic Reporter ...
I don’t often cry when a public figure dies. This morning, I cried when I heard the news that Senator Ted Kennedy had passed away.
I "grew up" with the Kennedy Clan. I remember how John Kennedy broke the "Catholic barrier" with his election in 1960. I remember Robert Kennedy’s prophetic words as he ran for President in 1968… his fearless embrace of the “least of these” and his opposition to the War in Vietnam. And I remember the wrenching agony of the two Kennedy assassinations.
But today feels a bit like the end of an era. Ted Kennedy, like his brothers, was a champion of civil rights, women’s rights, and the welfare of the “least of these.” He strongly and eloquently opposed the war in Iraq. Because his life (and the lives of others in his family) embraced the great Catholic social justice tradition, they have made me proud to be a Catholic.
So I guess now… the torch has been passed… to us.
Patrick Madrid's response:
At best, Mr. Kennedy was highly selective as to which of "the least among us" he would deign to defend. Case in point: Abortion. The senator established his record squarely on the extremist position of defending the legality of abortion. Many are not aware that he was originally publicly pro-life (I comment on the details of his transformation from pro-life to pro-abortion here). As a result of Ted Kennedy's indefatigable championing of the pro-abortion movement, tens of millions of the "least among us" — unborn girls and boys — were killed through abortion under his senatorial auspices. Whatever his positive qualities may have been, and no doubt he had some, the tragic reality is that Senator Kennedy's long political career was squandered by his vociferous, relentless promotion of abortion. And that, sadly, will be his enduring legacy. I agree with you that tears are appropriate upon hearing the news of this man's death, but not for the reasons you are crying them.
And the response from America Magazine:
Someone named Patrick Madrid, who runs a blog and is involved with something called the Envoy Institute at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina, decided to attack my colleague at NCR Sister Maureen Fiedler for her post remembering the late Senator. "Maureen, with all due respect," he begins, words that reek of condescension. He writes: "Whatever his positive qualities may have been, and no doubt he had some, the tragic reality is that Senator Kennedy's long political career was squandered by his vociferous, relentless promotion of abortion. And that, sadly, will be his enduring legacy. I agree with you that tears are appropriate upon hearing the news of this man's death, but not for the reasons you are crying them." I have my moments of hubris but it has never occurred to me to tell another soul why and why not to cry, still less in a blog post.
The Boors Who Demean Ted Kennedy
Well said.
St. Edward of Boston, pray for us. Don’t make me sick. This guy was perverse in his sense of social justice. Aborted babies don’t vote, so they’re expendable. If he is having a Catholic funeral, the cardinal/archbishop of Boston ought to vacate his See immediately. What a mockery of our faith
To know the history of the Kennedy brothers, and to say they were good Catholics really is a stretch. To look at the ruined lives of Marilyn Monroe, Mary Jo Kopechne, Joan Kennedy does not speak well of men who are suppose to follow and obey the laws of the of God and the church.
infidelity, debauchery and arrogance is not what is pleasing to God. Obedience, humility and contrition speaks volumes.
May God have mercy on their souls.
Fiedler is a Sister not a Nun, big difference.
Bravo Zulu, Patrick.
Rumor has it that she may once have been Catholic but clearly no more.
Reason #2 for Sean Cardinal O’Malley to vacate his see in Boston: Allowing Comrade Obabykiller to set foot in a Catholic Church, much less give a eulogy from the pulpit. This may be slightly worse than Comrade O at Notre Shame.
When I googled the quote, I found several blogs and fora with the quote as well as an article from WND.
The most reputable source I got was from a column in the Baltimore Examiner from the Pittsburgh Examiner:
The article doesn't source the quote too well, either.
I would place it in my list of “things that are entirely possible, perhaps even slightly probably, but not proven.”
sitetest
Don’t forget the other A-word, annulment in which he bribed the church and was awarded an annulment from a wife of many years and with children.
A person in authority, like Sen. Kennedy, who has the power to make laws and influence others should see that as a “God-given” obligation. You are put in a position to enforce justice not to say whatever you need to in order to keep being elected. That is a betrayal of the trust.
Mr. Kennedy was divorced in 1982 and didn't receive a declaration of nullity from the Church until the early or mid-1990s.
In that the Church grants tens of thousands of declarations of nullity every single year, and usually in much less than a decade or so, and usually at a cost of well under a thousand dollars, if Mr. Kennedy bribed anyone for his annulment, he got ripped off.
sitetest
I other words she's a Leftist/Liberal muddle-brained egg head.
When will the sainthodd process begin?
We weren't talking about “sainthood process,” we were talking about your patently false assertion that Mr. Kennedy bribed the Church for a declaration of nullity.
sitetest
***Sister Maureen Fiedler, Sister of Loretto, Ph.D is an American activist and radio host. She is a progressive, sometimes controversial activist within the Roman Catholic Church. She has a long history working with interfaith coalitions on a variety of issues including: social justice, peace, anti-racism work, gender equality, human rights and female ordination to the Catholic Church. She holds a Ph.D in Government from Georgetown University.***
The Inquisition is coming. The theologically leprous will be outcast. Unclean. The good Sister is representative of those who have emptied our seminaries and our monasteries and our nunneries.
I don’t know what green primeval ooze is dripped from her cranium out her ears, but it appears to have supplanted the Faith, edged out Scripture and removed the Sacred Tradition from whatever remains of her moral fiber. Good bye and good riddance. Those who remove themselves from the Faith need to be recognized by the Church.
Boorishness? I did not note any boorishness on the part of Mr. Madrid. He states facts about Kennedy’s zealousness in promoting abortion of the truly weak and defenseless. How in heaven’s name Sr. Maureen could say that Kennedy makes her proud to be a Catholic is beyond me unless ideology in her eyes trumps the Catholic Faith. Kennedy excelled in ignoring that Faith. Besides his pro-abortion stance and his spearheading statism which I don’t think goes with the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, his personal example will forever by tarnished by Chappaquidick and other behavior which need not be mentioned here.Kennedy remains a “Lion” for those who are liberals, because of his fierce partisanship in that cause. That certainly does not qualify him for making Catholics proud given liberalism’s current agenda.
May God have mercy on his soul...but for America and American catholics it would have been better if he died 70 years ago.
How did a rich million-dollar donor get an annulment having a wife of many years and children. I guess that's normal church process.
Defend it all you want. I've seen your kind before.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
I think I can explain it. Years and years ago, I saw a documentary about the campaigns and presidencies of Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson. What caught my attention was the discussion of the rise of social welfare in the country. In short, the argument was made to the public that "if church charity can help more people than personal charity, then a national charity (welfare) should be even more effective at eradicating poverty and hunger because the Federal government's tax coffers are larger than any church collection plate".
FWIW, I have never very few people in my lifetime who do not believe this argument at some level. They naively view our government as neutral and therefore not hostile to Christianity. They believe that, as long as the government is trying to achieve the same end (helping the poor/hungry), Christians should not be criticizing the government for it's welfare programs (i.e. should consider their taxes paid equal to money dropped into the church collection plate).
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