In Boston, the center of Kennedy power and myth for decades, locals and politicians also reacted to word that the commonwealth's senior senator, who served the state for 46 years, had passed away.Posted on 08/26/2009 9:26:20 AM PDT by NYer
BOSTON -- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died in peace with his whole family praying around him, the clan's priest said Wednesday morning as the world mourned Massachusetts' senior senator, who died from brain cancer at the age of 77.
"It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in -- the spiritual world," said Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church.
Tarrant, who was called to Kennedy's bedside late Tuesday as the senator was dying, said it was clear that Kennedy was ready for the journey that awaited him. He described the senator as "a man of quiet prayer" in his last hours.
"The truth is, he had expressed to is family that he did want to go. He did want to go to heaven. He did want to die and he did want to go. He was ready to go. There was a certain amount peace -- a lot of peace, actually -- in the family get-together last night. I couldn't help but think that the world doesn't know that part of the senator at all," Tarrant said in a lilting Irish brogue.
As is part of the family tradition, Kennedy was surrounded by loved ones, including his wife, Vicki, his children and other relatives, the priest said.
"I was there last night when he died and the whole family were praying. They'd been praying all day, and it was a wonderful experience for me. I don't see it that often," Tarrant said. "It's commendable."
The Roman Catholic priest was called to Kennedy's bedside when Kennedy took a "serious turn for the worse" between 9 and 10 p.m.Tuesday, Tarrant said.
Kennedy died about 11:30 p.m., he said.
Tarrant said the public generally knows about Kennedy the politician, but in death, he said, he saw a more personal side that was deeply devout.
"I think the whole world knows certain parts very well, but I think there's another part of his life that very few people know, and that's his deep faith. His very deep faith in God and his love for his family," Tarrant said.
The priest recalled how Kennedy led the prayers following Kennedy's sister Eunice's death Aug. 11, even though he was debilitated by his brain cancer. He said it was clear it was Kennedy's faith that gave him strength.
"He was there and very reverent. I wish the world had known that part of him, but that was his secret. It was like it was the secret of his power, to be involved in doing good for others and it was what, I believe, drove him," Tarrant said.
He said priests pray for the faithful to go in peace and Kennedy did, comforted and consoled by his family.
"They were there and they were very prayerful and reverent and of course, crying," he said. "Of course they were aware that the very sick, the sense of hearing is the last thing to go. So, whatever is said around the sick bed is always heard by the patient ... and they were very well aware of it. They let him know how much he was loved and cared for and missed ... it was quite an experience, for me," he said.
National and State Reaction
Long before dawn, residents, press and Kennedy aides began gathering outside Kennedy's Hyannis Port compound, brought there by the news that Kennedy had lost his year-long battle with brain cancer.
In Boston, the center of Kennedy power and myth for decades, locals and politicians also reacted to word that the commonwealth's senior senator, who served the state for 46 years, had passed away.
"Sen. Kennedy was the real deal -- an authentic, principled and giving public servant who pushed us to work for things yet to be. His work eased our concerns, lifted us with opportunity and filled us with pride," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said.
"Boston has never had a greater champion. Massachusetts has never known a more relentless fighter for economic and social justice. America has never witnessed a more influential and productive legislator," Menino said.
"He was always the first one to call if you needed encouragement," U.S. Rep. John Tierney said.
“Never afraid to sail against the wind in the name of justice, equality and opportunity, Senator Kennedy was a treasured friend and a legislator without peer. Throughout his distinguished career, he helped bring health care to millions of children, enabled many young people to afford a college education and ensured that so many could realize the American dream," U.S. Rep. Ed Markey said in a statement.
President Barack Obama, vacationing nearby on Martha's Vineyard, offered his condolences to the Kennedy family, calling Ted Kennedy a "colleague, counselor and friend."
Obama said although everyone "knew this day was coming," it was anticipated "with no small amount of dread." Still, he said, the senator's battle with brain cancer allowed him the "blessing of time" for loved ones and public to "say thank you and goodbye" that wasn't given to Kennedy's brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated in the prime of their lives.
"His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and affect millions of lives," Obama said, adding that Kennedy was a "defender of a dream" for many Americans.
"He lived an extraordinary life and the good that he did lives on," Obama said.
Vice President Joe Biden wept as he talked about the passing of his longtime friend and senate colleague.
He said he served with Kennedy since Biden was elected at the age of 29 and Kennedy was 30. He said he was profoundly affected by Kennedy's infectious optimism.
"He was never defeatist. He never was petty ... He was never small," Biden said. "And in the process of his doing, he made everyone he worked with bigger. Both his adversaries and his allies."
Biden said Kennedy altered lives and helped change the way Americans saw themselves and saw each other.
"Every important event in my life ... every single one, he was there. He was there to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up," Biden said.
"I, literally, would not be standing here if it were not for Teddy Kennedy," he said. "He was there, he stood with me, when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He was on the phone with me, literally, every day, in the hospital."
Biden said Kennedy affected hundreds of people the same way.
"He's left a great void in our public life and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americans," Biden said.
... He was never small,” Biden said.
...finally Joe got one right!
Where’s the part about him molesting young college interns?
I MISSED THE PRO-ABORTION PART.
God knows.
I do not.
I make no comment and pass no judgment on his final destination. That's above my paygrade.
His legislative and political legacy is another matter entirely; it is completely within my competence to judge.
His legacy is one of pure, unmitigated evil.
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]
This from Little Joe.
Yes, and he left millions of holes in the ground for all the Vietnamese who died in the North’s atrocities and re-education camps.
The blood of millions is on his hands.
Hopefully, he made a good confession. The priest can’t talk about that, but even the gravest sinner can have a good death if he truly repents and confesses his sins.
Kennedy’s public life was filled with evils. Putting aside Chappaquiddick, for which he never really apologized or paid any price, he was, to all appearances, a drunken, womanizing, philandering lout who was responsible for the deaths of millions of unborn children among his other sins as a public legislator and influential politiian.
We can still hope he died in peace after confessing his sins. But it would appear that, if he did, he left it to the very last day, a very dangerous thing to do. If a Catholic lives like that, setting a bad example, avoiding or abusing the Sacraments—among them apparently the sacraments of marriage, confession, and communion—then it may be very hard for him to reach inside at the last and make a real act of contrition and genuine repentance.
There was a Protestant professor at Harvard toward the end of the 19th century who said that his job obliged him to take his conscience and put it into a drawer and shut it away for as long as he taught there. Then, he said, when he opened the drawer years later, at his retirement, he found that the drawer was empty. So, don’t presume that you can do evil all your life and then quickly be forgiven at the end. It’s never too late, but it’s not wise to presume upon easy forgiveness after a lifetime of deliberate evil.
“It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in — the spiritual world,”
_______________________________________
lolol.
Bears Repeating!
“It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in — the spiritual world,”
If he believed all the stuff they taugh him about being forgiven for sin after sin he has now found out it an't so to keep doing the same thing time and again..When Ted got the annulment from his first wife Joan did that make his children bastard children..I wish Joan would sober up and write a book about this old drunk husband of hers...
Well, I’m not Catholic, so I can get away with passing judgment on that fat creep.
The faithful?
Cordially,
“It was a total surprise to me to see another world he was involved in — the spiritual world,” said Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church. “However, we were a bit mistified when he kept saying things like “ouch - that hurts!! “ Hey - you can’t stick that up there!” and “Can somebody turn on the air conditioning - it’s hotter than hades in here..”
You can thank his brother, John. In 1960, Kennedy was the Democratic nominee for president and abortion was illegal and not a campaign issue. Kennedy said he favored strict separation of church and state "where no public official either requests or accepts instructions from the pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesial source."
"Whatever issue may come before me as president -- on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject -- I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest," Kennedy said. "No power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise," Kennedy said to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a predominantly Protestant group.
Agreed.
Too bad it was from the perspective of a powerful and wealthy elitist looking down on the masses he has dominion over.
The leaders under socialism NEVER live under the conditions they impose on the pawns they assert their superior enlightenment over.
God; Ted: wherst is thy sister Mary Jo Kopechne?
Ted: I am not thy sisters keeper, Lord...
Which Obama twists to claim says: "we are our brothers and sisters keepers" And therefore we must have crappy commie style health care, which he will now add "in memory of Ted, who worked his whole life trying to achieve."
Between bottles.
“The truth is, he had expressed to is family that he did want to go. He did want to go to heaven”
Well teddy boy you were able to buy your way through life but you don’t have the currency needed to get into Heaven.
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