Caroline Kennedy's False Witness: Who Will Speak for the Church?

By Jennifer Hartline
9/20/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

What would happen if Catholic women across America rejected Caroline Kennedy's version of

There were a lot of bad speeches at the Democratic National Convention, but Caroline Kennedy's speech was the low point in many ways. She got up on a national stage and used her professed Catholic faith to justify and actually demand the preservation of grave evils that the Church explicitly condemns. She presented lies for the truth, and tried to justify it with her Catholic faith. I've been hoping to hear some strongly-worded corrections from our stellar priests, bishops, and cardinals since that night, but unless I've missed it, so far I've seen nothing. Are we wrong to expect a public condemnation of Caroline Kennedy's words from our church leaders? And by the same token, are we remiss in voicing that public condemnation ourselves?

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - There were a lot of bad speeches at the Democratic National Convention, but Caroline Kennedy's speech was the low point in many ways.

Caroline Kennedy got up on a national stage and used her professed Catholic faith to justify and actually demand the preservation of grave evils that the Church explicitly condemns. She twisted Catholicism into a pretzel to suit her own apostasy. She presented lies for the truth, and tried to justify it with her Catholic faith.

I've been hoping to hear some strongly-worded corrections from our stellar priests, bishops, and cardinals since that night, but unless I've missed it, so far I've seen nothing. Are we wrong to expect a public condemnation of Caroline Kennedy's words from our church leaders? And by the same token, are we remiss in voicing that public condemnation ourselves?

Ms. Kennedy, I know you grew up Catholic. I know you were raised in the Church. I can't speculate on the exact nature of your faith, but I can say this for certain: What you professed that night at the DNC was NOT Catholic. You seem to indeed have a very specific creed, but it's not the creed of the Catholic Church.

Your speech that night was scandalous. There's no other word for it. It was disgraceful. On the one hand, it made me furious, and on the other hand, it made me feel very sorry for you.

I am furious with you and every other public "Catholic" in this country who makes a mockery of our faith by living in utter contradiction of what the Church teaches while claiming to love the Church, love your faith, and take your faith seriously. You obstinately persist in championing grave and intrinsic evil, while wearing your ashes on your forehead as an empty display of authenticity. You claim to love the Church you persecute and blaspheme at every turn. You claim membership of a Body you despise through your actions.

When you champion the "right" to kill the child in the womb, you despise the Body of Christ. When you champion the "right" to treat the child in the womb as a thing rather than a person, you despise the Christ Child. When you champion the demise of true marriage through its redefinition, you despise the Holy Family. When you champion the demise of the family by casting aside the primacy of mother and fathers in raising children, you despise the Child Jesus. When you champion the proliferation of contraception and require your own Church to violate Her unchangeable teachings about the sanctity and dignity of human life and marital love, you despise the blessed humanity of Christ.

You do not correctly represent the Church when you make such scandalous remarks as you did that night. You may wish to fashion a Catholic Church more to your liking, but you don't have that authority or ability, thank the Lord.

I pity you that you have not yet encountered the true Faith in which you were brought up. I'm sorry you haven't yet realized what a treasure you could have. It is rich and beautiful and merciful and miraculous, and you don't know that. I hope someday you will. In the meantime, I cannot let your remarks or your version of Catholicism stand unchallenged.

You and Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius and John Kerry and on and on... you do not speak for the Church. You do not serve the Church. You don't seek to build up the Church but to weaken Her and contradict Her and remake Her in your own image. You make your scandal public so I make my confrontation public as well. I'm tired of all you wolves in sheep's clothing making yourselves at home in my Church while you work to scatter and devour.

If the Catholic Church is not to your liking, then leave and find a church that is. If the doctrine of the Catholic faith is not palatable to you then go find a doctrine that is. No one's forcing you to believe or to stay against your will. Be honest for once. You know quite well that your personal doctrine is diametrically opposed to the truth of Church teaching. You know that what you call good the Church rightly calls evil. You know that what you celebrate as progress the Church rightly calls immoral and destructive.

Your facade is pitiful and insulting. I'm sick to death of hearing you embrace evil and call it a "right" that must not be lost. My blood boils when you advocate for evil while waving your little Catholic banner.

So while I'm sitting here waiting for a bishop or other Church leader to publicly renounce your remarks, I started wondering if perhaps they were all waiting for me. And thousands of other Catholic women just like me.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, nor am I ashamed of His Body on ...

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7 months ago
I am so glad to see the phony Kennedy myth fading away into oblivion. John F. Kennedy was a media creation. But he was fading fast before he was assassinated. He was way down in the polls and his favor ability was low. It was his assassination that made him something he wasn't. The whole family was corrupt. The Liberal Baby-boomers had this surreal infatuation with the Kennedy's. Thank God the young generation doesn't share the same insanity.
Marlene
7 months ago
I heard yesterday that "The opposite of love is not hate, it is selfish apathy and indifference". It's seeing injustice and foolishness and not doing anything. Thank you, Jennifer, for loving God enough to speak up and plead for justice in the name of those who have no voice.
I know it's frustrating to see the public figures throw serpents through their lips. Empty words and sophisticated lies disguised as truth.
There is lot of confusion. That is the work of the master of lies.
We all know that the devil will not come out with horns and red panti-hoses. He will use whoever is weak enough in the their faith to sow the seed of doubt and self-sufficient-ness. This time he used Caroline, other days he will use any of us. That is why we must stand firm in God's love. Pray, pray pray. Pray in humility. Because the war is not merely in the flesh and blood.
We must pray for Caroline, and for all of us whether we are public figures or not, that God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit give us wisdom, courage and love to stand up for those who can't. To stand up for the weak. To stand up for the poor.
And I am talking weakness in faith the same as in the body. And I am talking poverty in the soul the same as the bank.
Caroline Kennedy, I pray for you. And I know that God will grant you the wisdom to know what is right and what is not, and the courage to act accordingly with no compromises.
God is good and merciful, and He will not leave you alone among the wolves.
As the resurrected Jesus converted Saul, and made a great apostle out of him; apostle of the gentiles; you too will be converted and be free of your lukewarmness and confusion.
God is stronger than the lies. God is stronger than human power. God's foolishness is wiser than the world's wisdom. May God open your eyes and your heart to the truth.

May God cover this nation with His precious blood, that we, the sheep know we do have a Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. And that thought the evil one tries to sow division and hate. We stand firm in His love. A love that is not silent. A love that does not accept wrongdoing. A love who corrects. With authority and love. With humility, because we are all sinners. And it is by God's grace that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

I trust in you, Lord. Lord make us wise even if we become fools at the eyes of the World. Give us courage to always speak the truth with compassion and authority. Help us to see beyond the veil of lies that satan is trying to cover us all with. Lord, you loved us so much you sent your only son to pay for our sins. You already paid for Caroline's sin. Give her Lord the Grace to see the truth and repent; and give her the courage to stand up for it. Lord, you called Saul when he was persecuting you. And you made him a great servant of all. You can call all our leaders and make them apostles to the nations. For Your Glory.

Brothers and sisters, we must pray. Pray fervently. The time has come for the children of God to manifest. In love and in authority. In wisdom and strength. For the battle is not merely in the flesh and blood. This is a war that goes beyond politics and human pettiness.
This war is fought though prayer and action. Love in action. I heard somewhere: "The most common mistake both the children of God and their enemies make is to underestimate the power of prayer".
Our faith is attacked in so many ways. We must all pray. And in prayer, God will talk to us.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you discernment. Do not act in haste, nor speak without prayer. Lest you too become momentary instrument of confusion.
We must follow St Paul's advice to the Ephesians and cover ourselves with God's Armor.
And cover our leaders with prayer. They need it. We need it.
During mass, put them at the foot of the cross. That Jesus' blood cover them and cleanses them.
Be patient with your clergy. And pray for them too. And listen to them, because the Lord speaks wisdom through them. Use the sacrament of reconciliation frequently, that the devil does not have any hold on you.
Pray pray pray. Fill your lamps with the oil of prayer, forgiveness, and love; and trust in God.
May God have mercy on us all.
Rob
7 months ago
JoAnn, I agree with you, although I suspect that Cardinal Dolan's intent was purely pastoral. I think he engages those who disagree with him and the church because he loves them. I don't think he took any comfort knowing that perhaps some of these wayward catholics were squirming in their chairs. In many ways, perhaps he sees hope. If someone is still calling themselves Catholic, I think that provides more of an opportunity for him to have an impact then if they had left the church.

We have to decide how are posture is going to be towards these people. Are we going to love them back or stone them?
James S.
7 months ago
Right on.
Charlie
7 months ago
@Michael. Right on fella!!
2hearts4life
7 months ago
"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight."
(Isaiah Chapter 5:21)

I wish people would just read the Bible! How much clearer can God make things? Man's wisdom has crowded out the true knowledge of God to the point that those of us who still believe the Bible is the God Breathed Word and Will of God are looked upon as fools, mentally unstable and dangerous enemies. Worldly wisdom rules in every school district in America and every secular university we push our kids to attend. Is it any wonder that by the time most people graduate from college, they are lukewarm Christians at best?

Oh how unbelievers think they are so clever in their own eyes. They sit around patting themselves on the back for their latest victory over those "stupid" Christians. They think they have outsmarted their god. They think just like their father thinks, Satan. Even though Satan was thrust out of God's presence because of his rebellion, he daily persuades countless people to believe he really won and that his systems of greed, lust and power are genuine and the other "god's" are inferior and wrong. And people believe him.

http://www.christianblog.com/blog/blessings2you/the-six-woes-of-isaiah-chapter-5-watch-out/
Dan
7 months ago
Debra, Jesus never said, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." It is good advice, but it's not Scripture. Also, free will means the ability to do good or evil, not permission to do good or evil. Free will is what allows us to damn ourselves if we use it wrongly. A murder uses his free will when he murders, and a rapist uses it when he rapes, and a mother uses it when she aborts. That doesn't make any of these things allowable under the divine law, nor should it make them allowable under the civil law. Free will denotes a capability, not a right.
joseph Tran
7 months ago
Jenifer!
There are lots of confusion that many catholics do not aware at.
To get to the point what is going on in our country, we don't label who is what
but we must dig out what principle the politician develop their thougth on.
Above all, the problem we face today is Atheist Socialism.
In order to build heaven on earth they try to make a society without family (no family), without religious (infidale), and without nationality.
Be awake, Be aware, Don't Be ignorent
Rob
7 months ago
Andrew, you are on to something and it's something that I think needs to be spoken of more plainly. You can go to mass every Sunday, have a master's in theology, be active in your parish etc and not know Christ. You can call yourself Catholic but never actually be. And I think we have to keep that in mind as we deal with some of these people. It seems the default position that many take with these wayward "Catholics" is that they need to be ejected from the Church immediately. But I think that approach shows a complete disregard for their spiritual well being of a fellow human being who is loved by God and who God wants more than anything to be saved. If we are to be Christ in the world, then we need to reach out to them just as he would. They are not religious leaders, but sinners just like us. But because of their position, they are held to a high standard. Sometimes the anger is warranted as they misconstue the teachings of the church, but I think we need to work harder at loving them back in the fold rather than throwing stones. We've been throwing stones for awhile on all sorts of things and I would question where it has taken us?
Wes Lisitza
7 months ago
Oh, wait...Archbishop Dolan will say something before he gives his closing prayer at the DNC and...no wait, he didn't. He just gave his blessing to the party with women dressed up like female genitalia and contraceptives in the crowds. I guess everyone forgot that, too.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote: "Though the devils may have captured the heavens, they cannot claim the cross." Jen, we are clearly experiencing what life must be like for Catholics who live abroad in countries hostile to our faith. These experiences with our leaders (secular and faith-driven) are only echoes of anti-Catholicism throughout the ages in countries like India, Egypt, Iran, China, and the former Soviet Russia. Even England was once very hostile to Catholics. Were there not celebrities and faux-Catholics in Nazi Germany denouncing Jews before WWII? That's not to say all, but among the bowels of a sinking boat, we know that even rats know when to abandon ship. The Catholic Church must not let itself become defined by these rats, lest we begin to see the creation of a phony Catholic Church arise from the shadows; a Church whose leaders take to incorporating the practices of Baal and Ashera, as was written in Hosea. If we are to take back our Churches, then we, the faithful, must make ourselves available to the Church to educate and support the families and clergy. I've seen Churches here in Fort Worth that did not have a resident pastor grow into a deeply faithful Catholic Community. Just as those who are subverting our faith have gotten themselves involved in teaching our children, we have to make ourselves that much more committed to rearing them in the right directions. We must becomes authors, singers, teachers, and coaches for our faith, and stop relying on someone else to do it. Become like Jeremiah and pray to God for the gift to speak God's words (or to write them, or sing them, or act them).

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