Posted on 08/31/2009 8:04:01 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
The late Sen. Edward Kennedy didn’t say he would fight to ensure there would be no mandate for abortion funding in the health-care reform bill now before Congress, in the letter he wrote to Pope Benedict XVI that was hand-delivered to the Pope by President Barack Obama in early July.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, read excerpts from the letter at Kennedy’s Aug. 29 burial service at Arlington National Cemetery.
The omission of comments regarding abortion is all the more glaring, given that Kennedy stated in the letter that health-care reform is “the political cause of my life” and pledged specifically, “I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field, and I’ll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.”
But as a leader of the congressional drive for reform, Kennedy knew that while conscience protection is a key pro-life priority in the reform process, ensuring there is no taxpayer funding of abortion is an even bigger priority.
Kennedy’s failure to say anything about that in his letter highlighted once again the biggest blot on his legislative legacy as a Catholic U.S. senator: his decades of pro-abortion advocacy, in direct opposition to the teachings of the Church.
Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody - not even the President - knew the contents of the sealed missive....The letter, most likely already re-sealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness....Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, read excerpts from the letter at Kennedy’s Aug. 29 burial service at Arlington National Cemetery.
-- After Kennedy's Death: Silence from the Pope
And now we know how this previously secret letter got out. The Kennedy clan must have put the letter and the Papal response into the Cardinal's hands, to be read at the funeral. It wouldn't surprise me, given the portions that were read at the burial, that Kennedy wrote his letter as a political advertisement, with the specific intention of it being used posthumously.
His Holiness prays that in the days ahead, you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God, our merciful father.
Note that the Holy Father prays that Teddy may be granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God, our merciful father.
Thus he is not convinced that Teddy, as of that time, had not already been granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God.
The way that I read that is: repent before it's too late, Ted.
I pray that he had the opportunity to do so before his death.
I made note of the very same thing yesterday. And I also pointed out that the Holy Father’s response may well have spelled out what the will of God is and that it CERTAINLY isn’t the slaughter of innocent life.
Whether he asked for and received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick remains to be known.
Some background on these sacraments for some of you.
Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Reconciliation: Rising Again to New Life [Ecumenical]
Beginning Catholic: The Anointing of the Sick: Comfort and Healing [Ecumenical]
I find it amazing that Terri Schaivo’s dad died and had his funeral around the same time...
Back in June, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent a letter to the US bishops, offering some guidance on how Church leaders should respond to Catholic politicians who promote abortion. Washington's Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, to whom the letter was addressed, chose not to share it with the other American bishops, and so Cardinal Ratzinger's statement did not come to light for several weeks, until it was leaked to an Italian journalist.
Just sayin' . . .
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