Posted on 08/29/2009 4:27:32 PM PDT by NYer
The celebrant, who strove to avoid masculine references to God in the liturgy (his verbal substitutions plainly clashing with the voices of others sticking to the approved texts), managed to forget the Mysterium Fidei during the Eucharistic Prayer, and later asked the congregation join him "in the words Our Father taught us."
The homily, which started well enough but steadily deteriorated, fell into various holes like (I'm quoting from memory): "the fruits of [Kennedy's] work in politics well-prepared him for God's kingdom" (Lord, I hope that's not what he really meant); and "Kennedy tied his faith to justice in the land" (good grief, justice? for millions of unborn babies in the land? was that the fruit of Teddy's faith?); and "we are confident that Kennedy has entered into the new dwelling of God" (maybe you are, Father).
The kid's intercessions came out as unabashed advertisements for Democratic Party policy goals.
Mercifully, all the major networks used a single video feed, and pretty obviously somebody got to somebody ahead of time and ordered "Don't, under any circumstances, show the Communion lines!", so we were spared wincing as this famous Catholic pro-abort or that approached the Eucharist.
And finally, whodathunkit?, President Obama's eulogy, though offered in violation of liturgical law, was actually the most palatable of what turned out to be three eulogies offered in violation of liturgical law, the first, Teddy Jr.'s, being maudlin, but mostly coherent if at times inappropriately partisan, while the second, that of Rep. Pat Kennedy, was embarrassingly pathetic and even included a joke about "that damn Kennedy" from the sanctuary. Sigh.
But what, in the end, most struck me, through whole ceremony, was how oblivious all the participants seemed to be (again, with the sole exception of Obama, who at least made one veiled reference to Kennedy's "public faults", and who was the only speaker to offer a prayer for Teddy's soul), how oblivious, I say, all the participants were to Ted Kennedy's disgraceful and chronic failings to defend the natural right to life (e.g., abortion, embryonic stem cell research), his refusal to protect the natural institution of marriage lately under such attack, and his bad example on a host of other issues of importance to Catholics and to the country. While a funeral is no place to rehearse, say, a man's role in the death of a beautiful young woman, such events and conduct should have, I think, instilled some restraint in the rush to proclaim the man's accomplishments. (As for those "accomplishments", well, if one is wedded to the idea of a gigantic state, then Teddy's accomplishments were admittedly many. But if you're not enamored of statism, one might say that the damage Teddy helped inflict on the nation was great.) Instead, one speaker after another gushed on and on about Ted.
The whole experience left me less hopeful about "dialogue" on life issues (not that I was very hopeful to begin with): we are, it seems clear, talking to people who have no sense of the enormity of the crimes being committed daily against the innocent. None. None.
So, as I said, the best one can say about Ted Kennedy's Catholic funeral (to which, yes, he had a right, in accord with law) is, it could have been worse.
I suppose.
That shows evidence that he was given time to have Last Rites. Something Kopechne didn’t get. Something that countless unborn babies did not get.
Still his public scandal was obvious to all on abortion and many other matters. He was terminal for over a year and never made any public statements or released any letters owning up to his scandalous public sins on grave matters of which he was a very public advocate.
The Order of Christian Funerals is quite specific: “A brief homily based on the readings is always given after the gospel reading at the funeral liturgy, and may also be given after the readings at the vigil service; but there is never to be a eulogy” (OCF, 27).
Thanks for posting this interesting article and the link to another article by the same author on whether Kennedy was eligible for a Catholic funeral (he was).
Does anyone know what was in the letter Kennedy sent to the Pope via Obama? I pray that it was a detailed confession of his sins and plea for absolution for the major transgressions in his life.
May he rest in peace, and may much of the legilation he sponsored be overturned.
He should have said the ‘damned’ Kennedy. Most likely he was damned.
The comments I’ve heard always occur after Communion, and just before the Final Blessing. They would never be confused with a homily.
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