HLI Statement on the Passing of Senator Edward Kennedy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Catholic PRWire
CONTACT: Stephen Phelan 540-622-5270
August 27, 2009
SPhelan@hli.org
FRONT ROYAL, VA (August 27, 2009) - We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have to praise him let alone extol him with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event. There was very little about Ted Kennedy’s life that deserves admiration from a spiritual or moral point of view. He was probably the worst example of a Catholic statesman that one can think of. When all is said and done, he has distorted the concept of what it means to be a Catholic in public life more than anyone else in leadership today.
Obviously we don't know the state of Senator Edward Kennedy's soul upon death. We don’t pretend to. We are told by the family that he had the opportunity to confess his sins before a priest, and his priest has said publicly he was “at peace” when he died. For that we are grateful. But it is one thing to confess one’s sins and for these matters to be kept, rightfully, private. It is another thing entirely for one who so consistently and publicly advocated for the destruction of unborn human beings to depart the stage without a public repudiation of these views, a public confession, as it were.
It is up to God to judge Senator Kennedy’s soul. We, as rational persons, must judge his actions, and his actions were not at all in line with one who values and carefully applies Church teaching on weighty matters. Ted Kennedy’s positions on a variety of issues have been a grave scandal for decades, and to honor this “catholic” champion of the culture of death with a Catholic funeral is unjust to those who have actually paid the price of fidelity. We now find out that President Obama will eulogize the Senator at his funeral—an indignity which, following on the heels of the Notre Dame fiasco, leaves faithful Catholics feeling sullied, desecrated and dehumanized by men who seem to look for opportunities to slap the Church in the face and do so with impunity simply because they have positions of power.
It is not enough for Kennedy to have been a “great guy behind the scenes” as we have seen him referred to even by his political opponents. It is also not praiseworthy to put a Catholic rhetorical veneer on his leftist politics that did nothing to advance true justice as the Church sees it or to advance the peace of Christ in this world. Every indication of Senator Kennedy’s career, every public appearance, every sound bite showed an acerbic, divisive and partisan political hack for whom party politics were much more infallible than Church doctrines. Whatever one’s political affiliation, if one is only “Catholic” to the extent that his faith rhymes with his party line, then his Catholicism is a fraud.
As the Scriptures remind us, there is a time for everything under the sun. This, now, is the time for honesty about our Faith and about those who are called to express it in the public forum. If we do not remind ourselves of the necessity of public confession for public sins such as Senator Kennedy was guilty of, then we are negligent in our embrace of the Faith and we are part of the problem. As Pope Benedict has reminded us recently, charity without truth can easily become mere sentimentality, and we must not fall into that error. A Catholic show of charity for the family must not eclipse the truth that is required of all with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Senator Kennedy needs to be sent to the afterlife with a private, family-only funeral and the prayers of the Church for the salvation of his immortal soul. He will not be missed by the unborn who he betrayed time and time again, nor by the rest of us who are laboring to undo the scandalous example of Catholicism that he gave to three generations of Americans.
Human Life International: Creating effective opposition to the culture of death around the world. Founded in 1981, HLI is the world’s largest pro-life organization and has affiliates in 87 countries on six continents.
Contact
HLI
http://www.hli.org VA, 22630 US
Stephen Phelan - Comm Mgr, 540 622-5270
Keywords
HLI, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, Senator Kennedy
Category
Pro-life Resources
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Father Thomas, thank you for your honesty; you believe in the truth. I respect your loyalty to the catholic church and its teachings. To those who profess to "love" God and the church and continue to advocate for the killing of innocents, mocking marriage and family values, same-sex marriages, etc. GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED AND YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY HIM!
Thanks for "telling it like it is". Ted Kennedy's public, heretical statements/actions have been a grave scandal for decades. The grandiose public funeral mass celebrated by the be-robed Bishops and Cardinals, w/the most extreme pro-abortion Pres. ever giving a eulogy hugely compounded the scandal. When are American Bishops going to get some backbone?
God bless you, Father, for your honesty and loyalty to Church teaching. Fenton, I also dreaded thinking about how many went to Communion who had no business doing so!
Father Thomas, you are a true soldier of Christ.
To all of you who mock God by advocating the killing of the innocents and corrupting traditional marriage values, goodluck on Judgment.
Nothing fancy, but reality.
I would rather follow divine scripture than the Gospel of death led by Obama, Kennedy and all those in positions of influence.
I am reminded of a few quotes from some famous people. They are as follows:
G.K. Chesterton - "Only a live fish can swim against the current, the dead go with it."
St. Athanasius - "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops." He was the first Doctor of the Church and is known as the Father of Orthodoxy.
I just turned on the TV and the basilica has turned from a place of worship of God to a place of scandalous behavior before the Blessed Sacrament. I wonder how many non-Catholics will present themselves for Holy Communion, or will the Cardinal have the courage to clarify Canon law beforehand?
My letter to the Bishop:
Dear Cardinal O’Malley,
With deepest respect, I urge you not to grant a public funeral Mass for the late pro-abortion senator Kennedy. This is perhaps one American “Catholic” who has more than any other Catholic to undermine the teachings of our faith, and is one of the many responsible for the death of so many children. He has spent his professional career advocating against Catholic moral teachings and a public funeral Mass will certainly bring into question what Christ’s Church really, truly stands for.
I’m especially troubled to learn that the president will speak at the funeral.
But it is Saturday, and by the time you read this (If you ever read this) the Mass will have been accomplished, and your diocese’s public promotion of a scandal complete.
Welcome to the ranks of Notre Dame.
I’ll pray for you, Mr Kennedy, but mostly for the millions of unborn.
In Christ through Mary,
Mike
It is impossible that there would be hatred in heaven in the hearts of those persons who are there as a result of their having been aborted . They are like their Father, God and receive Teddy K. as their very own brother . We can do no wrong in following their example .
Thank you for a clear outline of what the faithful Catholics are confronting. The battle lines are being clearly drawn. "One either gathereth with Me or he scatterith."
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones...", said by Mark Antony as part of his funeral oration after the murder of the emperor Caesar, in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Jesus also said, "judge not that you not be judged.