Looks that way to me, too, dear brother in Christ! I got just such a "form letter" from His Holiness in acknowledgement of my gift of A-G's and my book. I was grateful, delighted to receive it, notwithstanding the reply came out of the Papal Nuncio's Office in Washington. And so I wonder whether the papal reply to Teddy came directly from the Vatican, or from the Papal Nuncio. If the latter, that would be one terrific "diss." Cardinal-Emeritus McCarrick did not exactly clarify the source.
Last I checked, BHO cannot even get the Vatican to accept and seat any of BHO's proposed appointments of U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. As far as I know, that office is still vacant.
And Teddy's letter to Benedict was problematic on so many scores. First he claims that Obama is a man "of deep faith" like himself. I have doubts that Benedict would agree with that assessment in either case.
Anyhoot, the sort of "deep faith" that BHO has may be very like the sort of "deep faith" that Senator Teddy had. Which is to suggest: In both cases, what we see is a travesty of faith in the most self-serving ways. Benedict is no fool: A "gallows conversion" is of very little worth.
Alamo-Girl: Truly, that disappoints me all the more. I cannot imagine a minister turning his back on even the most difficult member of his church.
Senator Kennedy had a parish priest to guide him in such matters. Yet perhaps the parish priest himself held the same views as Teddy....
Pope Benedict has been battling the so-called "social gospel" -- which is like a metastasizing cancer in the body of the American Church -- since the 1970s. The social gospel is the mild form of liberation theology, which at bottom is nothing but a Left progressivist attack on the Magisterium of the Church and the complete inversion of the Gospel message. In America, it's been politicians like the Kennedys, the Cuomos, the Pelosis, etc., which have made the social gospel fashionable and "respectable." The Pope has instructed the American bishops and priests to deal with this issue. He has asked that the Eucharist be denied to such as support policies that do not conform to the Church's explicit witness to the sanctity of human life at all stages, from conception to natural death. That is a very clear directive. I don't see how even a Jesuit can reason that the Magisterium of the Church does not say what it very plainly does say: LIFE is the supreme value that must be upheld and defended by every faithful Catholic. A self-described Catholic who doesn't do that is not only NOT a Catholic; he is not even a Christian!
After 50 years of championship of anti-Life and even anti-human legislative policies, Senator Kennedy's plea to the Pope may look to His Holiness like a death-bed conversion of questionable sincerity.
I don't know for a fact of course. But I have reason to suspect that Benedict is not a fan of Teddy-style socialism. I think this becomes evident in his latest enclyclical, Caritas in Veritate.
True Christian charity involves ever so much more than simply giving a hungry man a fish to eat. That's Senator Ted's idea of charity. Charity IN TRUTH regards the needs of the whole man over time, and recognizes that it is better to teach a man how to fish -- to help him build up his own measure of human capital so that he can live in freedom and dignity.
Teddy Kennedy today is being wildly applauded as a man of great charity and concern "for the poor." To him, "the poor" does not mean "the poor in Spirit" -- which is the Gospel definition of "the poor." To him, sad to sad, it appears the poor are just bellies to feed at great taxpayer expense, and in such a way as to lock the beneficiaries of such "charity" into a state of permanent dependence on the government.
Why do we say that Senator Ted was a charitable man, when all his "charity" was always paid for by others, on a compulsory basis? How "charitable" is forced charity after all?
Our Lord Jesus Christ could take five loaves and two fishes and feed a multitude of five thousand, with 12 baskets of leftovers remaining.
But the government can't do that!!! Somebody's got to pay the tab. IMHO Pope Benedict is clearly able in the political and economics fields and he understands this; and he sees the further implications of state-cultivated dependency as both a tool of political power, and as fundamentally anti-human and anti-Life....
I found the ceremony at the gravesite last night perfectly chilling. The last televised image before the lights went totally out was that of a bugler standing at parade rest beside a half-masted Old Glory. What a pregnant image!
And then some genius in the Kennedy family decided to put the grandkids to work flogging universal heathcare commercials....
I was simply sickened by such calculating cynicism and exploitation of mere babes, just to glorify the dear departed and try to ensure that "his legacy" will finally be established, in the name of what the dimwits among us call "social justice."
Oh well.... Life goes on....
May the Lord have mercy on Senator Kennedy's soul; and comfort and bless his family in their time of loss.
We just lost two Christian kids in our area in a horrendous accident. My tears go to their families. Kennedy deserves hell. These boys deserve heaven. I thank God one of them was led to Christ early on this year. I doubt Kennedy will ever meet them.
Truly I believe the Pope has a lot on his plate battling back the liberation theology which has become so popular - and also the rogue element within the priesthood and church membership which clings to the label "Catholic" only when it is politically convenient.
Lately I have been meditating on how things would be in this world if those who said they believe in Christ actually realized that He IS.