Is it true that Pres. Obama is slated to give a eulogy during a Funeral Mass for the late Sen. Kennedy?
I am not quite sure, but this is what the news reports are suggesting.
I’m just askin’
If so….
Q. 1) When were eulogies during a Mass approved?
Q. 2) Should Sen. Kennedy have a Catholic funeral?
Q. 3) Will the sight of the most aggressively pro-abortion President in history giving a eulogy, in a Catholic church… during a Mass… for the most aggressively pro-abortion Catholic Senator give scandal to the Catholic faithful?
A. 1) They haven’t been approved. The Rite of Christian Funerals 141 says: “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.” The 2000 GIRM 338 says: "At the funeral Mass there should as a rule be a short homily, but never a eulogy of any kind. The homily is also recommended at other Masses for the dead celebrated with a congregation."
A. 2) Perhaps. It depends on whether he showed some adequate sign of repentance before his death. We have to be lenient on that point. Given what I heard of Sen. Kennedy’s last hours, I would not fuss too much about this. I am disturbed, because of his decades long unrepentant support of abortion, and the scandal that caused… but… the Church’s law is very lenient. Thank God.
A. 3) Scandal? D’ya think?
QUAERITUR… QUAERUNTUR…
I want to believe that the soul of Ted Kennedy will someday see God face to face. I desire this for every soul. I know that not all souls will see God… but I sincerely desire all to be saved through … whatever… loophole… bolthole… I don’t care. God let him be saved.
That said…
Do rules which are supposed to apply to all Catholic apply to Sen. Kennedy?
He seems to be The Exception. He is like … what… European Royalty?
Are there special rules in the Catholic Church for the Kennedy Clan?
He can be strongly pro-choice and be courted by Cardinals.
He can have the pro-abortion President of the United States deliver a eulogy at his Funeral Mass.
Do canon law and liturgical law apply to the Kennedy Clan?
The visual image for the TV coverage could be … maybe… the pic from the Vatican’s Secret Archives of the Bull granting Henry VIII a divorce.
Picture this.
The swirling TV CGI graphics for the funeral.
The title swishes in over meaningful music.
In bleeds (sorry) an image of the Bull.
As it recedes, with old videos of the life of beloved Teddy… Dux, and perhaps old Masses before the Council.
The thematic title for the network news coverage, just as elaborate for, say, a bear stuck in a tree or maybe a car chase, ….
VP Biden
Speaker Pelosi
Sen. Kerry
Sen. Dodd
Sen. …?
Will they, as royalty, receive Holy Communion?
If it is a funeral Mass, who will say the Mass and who will recieve? And why?
Will the Obama Kennedy Eulogy be Notre Dame II?
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I hope the white vestments used during the Mass of Resurrection don’t signal to non-Catholics that the Catholic Church is somehow pleased with the late senator’s passing.
Well, Fr. Z., you have crystalized my thoughts exactly. Well, maybe not exactly, you continue to be much more eloquent than I could ever hope to be. It should be an interesting Saturday morning.
There are two religions co-existing in the modern Catholic church. We can’t let it bother us when the other religion holds a funeral for one of its members. They don’t consider themselves bound by Catholic doctrine or discipline, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
I’m with you. The message of pro-abortion Obama at this funeral for the pro-abortion Catholic pol is very problematic in my mind. I think it will be ND redux, without the protestors. It would be odd to be protesting Obie outside TK’s funeral. It begs the Q that there are different “rules” for the prominent, Kennedy’s in particular. I hope the “Camelot” silliness dies with TK. Why couldn’t Obie be allowed to talk at the memorial on Friday? I hope Obie won’t be permitted to enter the sanctuary to use the ambo. Is the Cardinal presiding? What a mess.
I had a friend, however, assert that #170 of the Roman Order of Christian Funerals permits some words following Holy Communion, thereby concluding that a eulogy may be offered at that time during the mass. There are other times outside of mass when such talks may be permitted as well.
We will get some clarity, eventually, about eulogies.
from the website of one of their parishes (St. John, Chelmsford, http://www.saintjohnchelmsford.org/) it appears that the “policy” of the Archdiocese of Boston is that one eulogy is permitted at a funeral, as long as it is done after Communion, not more than five minutes, focused on the deceased life of faith, and written out in advance.
Now, one could ask how a diocese could implement a policy that contradicts universal law (and that would be a VERY good question to ask), but I for one will be very interested to see if the “eulogy” the President will deliver for Senator Kennedy’s funeral will even follow the archdiocesan “policy.”
Tim F: Do the rules apply in this case?
Is the law everyone’s law?
I often attend a parish that is nearby a retirement community. The pastor has a somewhat acceptable compromise on this: Eulogies are offered at the end of mass, after the final blessing. In addition to not mixing the eulogy with the mass, this gives the family a chance to reminisce without the restriction of a time limit. Kindly note that in our area, a proper wake in another location would be very difficult and expensive.
Some local parishes have no problem with allowing eulogies, which I can’t understand. My final wishes are in the hands of one of my children and in the file at my parish. A Requiem Mass in the EF, with all that entails, is to be carried out. If family, friends, want to get together at home or the parish hall after the cemetery burial, fine. They can reminisce and praise me or complain about me all they want. I have a written statement, final letter to my loved ones, also, to be read at such a gathering, that says if anyone – anyone at all, rhapsodizes that I am in heaven, I instruct that one’s guardian angel to slap him/her upside the head. They have been warned. I have requested prayers for the repose of my soul. Period.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but when a person publicly persists in supporting/committing grave sin, is not a public rejection of those views required to come back into full communion?
Didn’t this also happen at the last huge state Funeral Mass…? I can’t recall which politician off the topic of my head though.
Seems pretty par for the course for Washington.
From what I understand, the celebrant will be the Kennedy family priest, the Rev. Patrick Tarrant.
The congregation will consist of:
-Presidents Bush II, Clinton and Carter
-over 40 Senators
-over 100 members of the House of Representatives
-the British and Irish prime ministers, as well as other foreign dignitaries
-the Massachusetts delegation to Congress
-Boston and Massachusetts officials
-family, friends, lucky acquaintances and supporters, etc.
Obama is doing the eulogy, but I think others are expected to publicly reflect on Kennedy’s life during the 2-hour Mass.
The Boston Globe’s take on Kennedy’s “complex legacy as a Catholic”:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/28/kennedys_complex_legacy_as_a_catholic/
“He was, at the same time, the scion of the most storied Catholic family in American history, and the bane of the Catholic right.
“By championing the poor, the disabled, the immigrant, and the elderly, his politics often embodied Catholic social teaching, but with his personal failings and, especially, his strong support of abortion rights, he drew legions of often furious opponents who wanted him excommunicated.”
I occasionally assist at Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood. You should be in for a real treat—it’s very beautiful and well-cared-for.
The Redemptorists have been running it since it was built in the 1870s. Today the Redemptorists there are a *little* squishy but otherwise pretty decent. They are probably the second-most orthodox religious community in the Archdiocese after the Oblates of the Virgin Mary in Back Bay.
Perhaps they are taking one for the team—the Kennedy funeral could have ended up at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and with the Cardinal involved!
….The visual image for the TV coverage could be … maybe… the pic from the Vatican’s Secret Archives of the Bull granting Henry VIII a divorce…
I´m rotfloling too much
Welcome to their worl— err… our world, Father.
Father Z. – “We will get some clarity, eventually, about eulogies.”
Yeah, some of us have been reading and talking about it a bit locally (see The Concord Pastor) since the Shriver funeral. By the way, Tim F., OCF does say “never a eulogy” in no. 27 but then speaks of a member of the family offering a brief “remembrance” following the Prayer after Communion in no. 170. RCAB policy echoes that – homily only during Mass, one speaker may offer remembrance (<=5 min) just before the Final Commendation. It will be interesting to see what happens. Will POTUS bring TOTUS?
At this point, what bothers me more is the constant references to “private”, “invitation-only” Funeral Mass. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/28/thousands_vie_for_coveted_funeral_tickets/
The Basilica is indeed beautiful.
My heart goes out to the people in that neighborhood. There’s a housing development downhill and lots of old local streets uphill from the Basilica. The Secret Service, et al… will doubtless be cordoning the neighborhood as well as the church itself. Traffic, of course, will be chaos. The basilica only has a dozen parking spots and often borrows the parking lot of a nearby funeral home. No posting yet from the City on street closures and street parking restrictions. Two bus routes will diverted and a nearby streetcar line will stop short of its normal terminus.
My wife used to live in that neighborhood and attended Mission Church and its grammar school. We’ve had some fanciful speculation about one of the little old daily Mass ladies she used to know and the concept of some M.I.B. telling her she can’t go to church on Saturday morning.
We’ve also been watching the weather forecasts, to see what track Tropical Storm Danny might take. If a deluge arrives, it will be interesting to see what happens. Will it happen just as the casket is removed from church, allowing some headline writer to say “Heaven Wept”? Will the President give someone his coat, like the scene in Wag The Dog?
Another factor in traffic chaos is the fact that there are at least 5 colleges and universities within blocks of the Basilica, a few dorms nearby, many students live off-campus in Mission Hill, classes start soon, and it’s the last weekend of the month (i.e. – moving day)!
Good look trying to get your U-Haul or minivan anyplace near your kid’s apartment, Mom & Dad. Tell your kid to bring their young, strong friend to help – they’re probably going to have to walk up Parker Hill Ave. carrying a futon on their heads!
Eulogies are done very frequently at Novus Ordo funerals, it has become a customary honoring of the law by its breach in more diocese’s than I can count. Before i stopped going to the NO for any reason, years ago I was asked to do a eulogy specifically because I was working on my MA in Theology. When I said it wasn’t permitted half the family threw a fit and the priest tried to urge me to do it after everyone got on him. When I noted the GIRM he simply said it was a guideline.
The real issue is, is the Church serious about enforcing its own laws? Like the last 50 years, the answer is no, the hierarchy is not ready for that yet, especially in Europe and the US.
What I really don’t understand is why can’t one hold eulogies at a wake, or after the burial service? Why does it have to be at Mass? The point of the funeral Mass is to pray for the soul of the deceased, but the white vestments, the colorful music, the years of sermons declaring the guy in heaven just to make people feel good about themselves, all suggest that instead the thing is a canonization service. It is little wonder that people feel the need (nay, the right) to give eulogies. After all the Protestants do it.
Since the hierarchy is not willing to stand up to the common man, fearing whiny families in the local paper, it can scarcely stand up to the exceptional man plain and simple.
Although the GIRM prohibits eulogies as such, the Order of Christian Funerals nevertheless states, “A member or a friend of the family may speak in remembrance of the deceased before the final commendation begins.” (OCF # 170)
Matthew, the Church doesn’t teach that someone who has persisted in manifest grave sin must publicly reject the same before returning to full communion. Even if a person is excommunicated, that excommunication can be lifted in the internal forum (in some cases through sacramental confession, in other cases, through recourse to the Apostolic Signatura).
Dr. Peters does his usual clear and expert excursus on a funeral Mass for Ted Kennedy at his blog: http://www.canonlaw.info/blog.html
I hope the white vestments used during the Mass of Resurrection don’t signal to non-Catholics that the Catholic Church is somehow pleased with the late senator’s passing.
What’s a Mass of Resurrection?
The last time Obama was in a Catholic Church, he asked them to cover up the crucifix, and they did. That alone should disqualify him.
Covering up the crucifix should have disqualified the people in the church, not Obama. Everybody already knows that he’s anti-Christian and they knew that when they invited him. The ones who are supposed to be Christian are the ones who should be getting a slap upside the head, as they say in New York. Obama wouldn’t be able to do any of these things if people in the Church didn’t let him.
ckdexterhaven: I believe that was in a hall at Georgetown University, not a church, and it wasn’t a crucifix, it was the monogram IHS for the Holy Name.
A minor question. I thought Kennedy had his funeral mass yesterday (at a small church on the Cape). So today’s event would be a memorial mass, I suppose. Does that make it any different?
It’s possible that the funeral mass wasn’t held yesterday, and the press simply got it confused with a vigil or something. But if he did indeed have one yesterday, how can he be having another one today?
Sir Thomas More: Hear me out. You and your class have ‘given in’, as you rightly call it, because the religion of this country means nothing to you one way or the other.
The Duke of Norfolk: Well that’s a foolish saying for a start; the nobility of England has always been…
Sir Thomas More: The nobility of England, My Lord, would have snored through the Sermon on the Mount, but you’ll labor like Thomas Aquinas over a ratdog’s pedigree.
Perhaps his moment to “clamor like champions” came at the edge of the water. What might have come had he, or any of us, in such a moment, admitted our guilt and failings. God preserve us from failing such tests….
“But for Wales Richard, for Wales”.
Traductora:
They had a family Mass at the ‘compound’ on the Cape before the motorcade left for Boston. For what it’s worth, I didn’t hear any reports referring to it as a funeral Mass. Most of the coverage has referred to Saturday’s “service” as a funeral Mass.
Of course, that’s just what the coverage says. We had a religion reporter around here do an item on Perpetual Adoration a couple of weeks ago – made about 9 references in one short article to Catholics contemplating “the wafer”.
I would think it would be even more irregular to have the funeral Mass Thursday and then drive the body of the deceased around to other events for 48 hours before burial.
Father, your questions and answers are cogent, well stated, and thought out. I think the real difficulty now is that the Church in the US is in full “damage control” mode.
For all the public scandal of a pro-abortion politician, the family could nonetheless go to Cardinal O’Malley and say: “But, Your Emminence, we were formed by Jesuit priests in good standing. 1964 … 1984 … Jonsen… Fuchs… Milhaven… McCormick… Curran… Drinan… Hyannisport. Why should a layman be singled out for scandal in death when every one of those priests who have passed away died in full unity with the Church? Why didn’t the Archbishops of Boston and Washington correct the Senator while he was alive? He personally knew them.”
IMO, it is necessary to correct the scandal and to hold Catholic politicians accountable in accordance with the Church’s moral teaching and canon law. Practically, though, it’s very difficult to do so when the clergy who instructed the politicians in how to support abortion in the first place get off without censure.
In Christ,
Quaeruntur plura:
Q. 1) Will Joan Kennedy, whose marriage to His Teddyship was “annulled”, attend?
Q. 2) Will Maronite Victoria Reggie’s divorced husband attend?
Q. 3) Will Judge Robert Bork, another convert of Fr. John McCloskey, attend the “service” as a sign of Christian forgiveness?
Q. 4) Will the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne, recipients of Kennedy largesse, attend their benefactor’s obsequies?
Q. 5) Will plangent cries of “Santo Subito” be heard from grief-stricken onlookers?
Q. 6) Will Seano O’Malley invite O’Sama O’Bama to concelebrate with him?
Q. 7) In this basilica, the Mission Church, the “Healing Church”, will Our Lady of Perpetual Help heal the crippled souls of Pelosi, Biden, Kerry, Dodd?
Tuque, Princeps Militiae Coelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, Divina Virtute, in infernum detrude.
Cor Iesu Sacratissimum, miserere nobis.
You can bet I’ll be watching if and how they receive!
I need more photos for my blog!
I pray the president will not pull a Canadian prime minister move and feel he needs to receive just for fellowship’s sake.
k.c.
http://kneelingcatholic.blogspot.com/2009/08/kc-responds-to-lifeteen-president.html
“What’s a Mass of Resurrection?”
Answer: There is not such animal. There is a Mass of Christian Burial. There is a Funeral Mass. There is even, still, a Requiem Mass. But there is no such thing as a Mass of Resurrection. The term became vogue after the Council along with white vestments and the canonization of the deceased. A Catholic funeral ought to be primarily about praying for the deceased and secondarily about the mystery of death in Christ.
I am also troubled about a “private and by invitation only Mass”. All liturgies of the Church are essential public actions.
Sorry for the confusion, Fr.
I was being facetious about the Mass of Resurrection, playing stupid because I know there’s no such thing.
A Catholic funeral ought to be primarily about praying for the deceased and secondarily about the mystery of death in Christ.
Yes! It’s not about “celebrating the person’s life.” It’s about praying for their soul. I agree about the public nature of all liturgy, and that it’s disturbing to see it being kept private. Especially disturbing about that act is that many non-Catholics will be invited, and many Catholics excluded from a Mass that is their birthright.
Not that you could pay me a million dollars to go or anything.
Roland de Chanson –
“Q. 4) Will the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne, recipients of Kennedy largesse, attend their benefactor’s obsequies?”
Some local radio commentator mentioned this week that both her parents were deceased (not surprising, they’d have to be at least 90 if they were alive) and that he believed that Mary Jo had no surviving relatives closer than distant cousins.
I was under the impression that short eulogies given by friends or family are usually permitted, at the discretion of the bishop. They don’t replace the homily. As with marriages, Catholic funerals can create confusion when attended by non-Catholics who have different expectations about how such rituals are run.
And of course we can expect several pro-choice Catholic politicians to receive Communion, such as Joe Biden. They’ve been receiving Communion for decades, as Kennedy himself did, so that’s not going to change. Scandalous yes, surprising no.
It is unfortunate that the eulogy will be delivered by a pro-choice politician, but at least he’s not Catholic. Hopefully people won’t perceive a eulogy given by a non-Catholic colleague/friend as any sort of official Catholic statement. It’s not nearly as scandalous as him receiving an award and giving a commencement address at a Catholic university, IMHO.
The “Scandal” of Ted has already reached my hometown of Farmersville, TX. This morning my Baptist friend was up in arms about how Ted Kennedy was going to have his funeral in a Catholic Church and be eulogized by our President. I told her that she was just preaching to the choir and that there were a lot of Catholics who disagree with his immediate canonization.
Eulogies given by laity are nothing new at Kennedy funeral Masses. Recent archive footage played on cable news since Ted Kennedy’s death have shown him eulogizing his mother Rose and his brother Bobby at their funeral Masses. It’s wrong, but it’s hardly surprising. What’s worse in this case is that the eulogy is likely to be all about the impact Kennedy had on Obama. Taking one wrong and then expanding it into a public forum focused not on hope of the Resurrection but on one individual’s political accomplishments is beyond words.
At funeral Masses which I have attended for relatives, the priest will often sit down with the family and ask them about their departed loved one and then try to incorporate some of those details in his homily, thus eliminating a post-Communion free-for-all for anyone with an ego and something to say.
“Why didn’t the Archbishops of Boston and Washington correct the Senator while he was alive? He personally knew them.” They did, in private.
“The Redemptorists have been running it since it was built in the 1870s. Today the Redemptorists there are a little squishy but otherwise pretty decent. They are probably the second-most orthodox religious community in the Archdiocese after the Oblates of the Virgin Mary in Back Bay.” Don’t forget about the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance.
I’m in total agreement on what you said, Athanasius!
Rob-if you go to the site ‘find a grave’ you will see the grave of the Kopechnes-father, mother and daughter. Here’s the site: http://www.findagrave.com. You can use the links ‘most popular searches’, ‘location’ [under ‘Massachusetts’] or ‘search by name’.
There was an remark made by an aunt of Mary Jo’s-she said simply, ‘Good riddance’.
Charivari Rob: Some local radio commentator mentioned this week that both her parents were deceased ..
Sounds logical. I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall when Teddy knocks on the Pearly Gates and finds Mary Jo and her parents are on the admissions committee.
Nevertheless, given the gravity of Kennedy’s final illness, I hope his death was an easy one. Far easier than the stark terror of facing an excruciating death trapped in a submerged car, slowly drowning, while your dimming vision watches your only rescuer swim away to safety and to life.
I know practically nothing of Edward Kennedy.
However, given that mortal sin requires full knowledge as well as grave matter and complete consent, and given the principles of good faith and “nothing but good of the dead”, would it not be natural to assume that Kennedy was not aware of his error?
Should he be given a Catholic funeral? Yes.
Should he be given a “state funeral”? Well, perhaps the phrase “Sen. Kennedy” [B]is[/B] the modern equivalent of “[I]rex christianissimus[/I]”: there might be outcry at a perceived “insult” if he wasn’t.
But Obama delivering a eulogy is just too much.
Quite fitting, this president is the president of Death… After the assassination of Jean Paul Marat during the French Revolution, I believe they took his heart, put it some kind of reliquary and treated him as a “saint”. Perhaps the same will happen to Sen. Kennedy, he is a saint of the secularism.
Charivari Rob:”I would think it would be even more irregular to have the funeral Mass Thursday and then drive the body of the deceased around to other events for 48 hours before burial.
Well, this is a Democrat funeral, you know…maybe they felt a mere Wellstone memorial treatment just wouldn’t be enough for somebody of Kennedy’s – uh – magnitude.
I, too, pray for the repose of the soul of Teddy Kennedy. I’ve read some reports that he showed “some sign of repentance before death.” I hope these reports are true, because not long ago it was reported that he was trying to change Massachusetts law (again) to ensure his Senate seat would be filled by another liberal. Hardly a sign of recognition of the gravely evil policies he supported through the years. But, as Father notes above, “the Church’s law is very lenient. Thank God.” I think here of the end of Brideshead Revisited.
Charivari Rob,
I would warn against relying on The Concord Pastor blog for much of anything. I’ve heard it’s been cleaned up (after publishing an open letter to the Pope asking for recognition of gay marriage and rhapsodizing on the joys of Concord Pastor’s annual Provincetown vacations) but the bulk of the commentators (and the pastor in real life) are left/liberal/looney too often, as is the parish, one of the last strongholds of VOTF. Concord Pastor, if I recall, wrote last year about giving blessings at public events, and noted that in the interest of diversity, he refrained from using “Jesus” (and even “God” in a printed example).
Massachusetts Catholic,
Thanks for your concern. As is easily verifiable, the discussion referred to specific content from the OCF and the archdiocese.
Also, reading it, you saw that this was the most recent of several posts on that blog (since the Eunice Shriver funeral) discussing the purpose of the funeral liturgy and the importance of celebrating it as the Church has instructed.
News update – according to recent reports, Cardinal O’Malley will preside at the funeral. Father Monan, a Jesuit, will be the principal celebrant. Father Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victory in Centerville (near the Kennedy home), will be the homilist.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09082801.html
Check out this site to express, respectfully submit your opinion on this funeral. And, let us all pray really hard for the Catholic Church in America.
I am probably wrong, but I always believed that people who are supporting or even promoting abortion like did Ted K. were excommunicated “latae sententiae”.
“He seems to be The Exception. He is like … what… European Royalty?”
European Royalty of the pre-WWII period. This would be going back 70 years or more chronologically, and culturally to the time of Pius XI, not his successor.
It is a continuing scandal when just because someone is rich and famous (infamous), they are given this huge public Catholic funeral as though they were in line with the Church when all the years of public ‘service’ were in the culture of death. These things are a travesty and never seem to end.
YES, there are parallel Catholic churches in this country and has been for a long time. One Church follows the Holy Father and the Magisterium and the other is in tune with the secular world and its ways, even to the supporting of the culture of death. The president is brilliant in continuing to honor the dissenters of the second form of ‘church’ which keeps it divided and the majority of the bishops are either on his side or silent.
Push will one day come to shove. What price are you and I willing to pay to be faithful Catholics?
Waching C-Span it seems Ted Kennedy loved everybody but the unborn.
I am going to be sick.
I just listened to the “Memorial Service for Sen. Edward Kennedy” on Fox News and you would think this man was ready for canonization.
Thanks be to God I will not be able to watch the televised Mass tomorrow.
This is an absolute outrage to the Irish Catholic heritage he is supposedly so faithful to. God help us; as one who is partly Irish I invoke the Irish saints and martyrs, particularly,
St. Oliver Plunkett, who died at the hands of the apostate English (from whom I also derive my heritage)to pray for us all, especially here in these United States where we are so in need of God’s mercy and assistance.
Oh, and one more “snarky” aside, will “When Irish Eyes are Smilin'” be the recessional instead of “In Paradisum” at the Mass of Christian Burial tomorrow?
Just one look at the crowd at the Memorial Service gave a good indication that this “era of Kennedy Catholicism” is near its end.
Thanks be to God.
The grey and bald heads in the congregation was one consolation I received in the whole sordid affair.
God has dealt with Teddy.
Requiescant in pace.
We need to move forward. Amen.
I’m sorry that should be “The grey and bald heads in the congregation were one consolation”….
my grammar faltered…
FrJM
“From what I understand, the celebrant will be the Kennedy family priest, the Rev. Patrick Tarrant.”
Not anymore. Although it could scarcely be less stage-managed by the Clan.
Sean Cardinal “Sandals” O’Malley will “preside” (not my word) and Fr. Donald Monan, ex-president of B.C. (“Barely Catholic”) will be the main celebrant; another of their pet priests will deliver the homily.
There is definitely a story yet untold here. For three days the Boston media has been reporting on the obsequies in excruciating detail but the name of the the presider/celebrant has been conspicuously absent, as has any but the most perfunctory mention of the Cardinal Archbishop. Many hoped he’d finally be a profile in courage, but apparently not. One wonders – sadly – what the “deal” was.
We must pray for the soul of Senator Kennedy. His personal life was scandalous, he publicly dissented from the Church’s teachings and in fact legislated against them. Meanwhile, at election time he wrapped himself in the mantle of Catholicism and reaped the benefits thereof. But does anyone suppose many such sentiments will be voiced tomorrow? I’m expecting a veritable canonization, topped with layers of schmaltzy bonhomie and crowned with “HOPE” (not the Catholic kind, the kind that comes with “CHANGE”)
And the churchmen who enable this behavior have an even greater culpability and are in even greater need of prayers.
I’m sorry to be somewhat negative, but at times like this one cannot but recall Archbishop Lefebvre’s cri de coeur about “two different religions”…