Ted Kennedy’s Catholicism

 

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There is no separating the senator from his religious identity, so reactions today to his passing have him as either the most influential Catholic politician in history, or one of the many who very publicly endorsed laws gravely counter to the teachings of the Catholic faith.

He was actually some of both.

The nimbus of Catholic piety surrounding nearly a century’s worth of Kennedy highs and lows gives anti-Catholic bigots a satisfying sense of superiority, and some Catholics a scathing sense of scandal. The Kennedys are a gifted, public-minded clan of great wealth and privilege, whose shenanigans, some feel, have served more to shame than showcase the sanctity of the Catholic family or the great, full-hearted, and consoling wisdom of the Catholic faith. There is a feeling that the tribe has been betrayed, and therefore resentment, too, has blocked prayer, or limited it to general good wishes for the family, and rather neutral feelings for the man.

One could argue, however, that the Kennedy Saga, in all its triumph and trouble, presents Catholicism to the world in all of its messy imperfections and abundant mercies. While we might wish for public Catholics to live lives of such transparent holiness as to edify a nation and promote Catholicism as a showcase of saintliness, they too often instead reveal the Church as the hospital for sinners in chronic need, who are never turned away.
 
The Kennedys are neither holier nor more wicked than other families, but where most of us commit and repent of our mortifying sins in relative obscurity, the veil of privacy granted to them is excruciatingly diaphanous; it tempts others to presume knowledge of the state of souls, and since the days of public penances are long past, there is further temptation to assume an arrogance that may or may not exist. Is it arrogance and entitlement that keeps a public man of public failings turning, and turning again, to the Mass, the sacraments, and the tribe, or is it a kind of humility, a declaration of need that supersedes riches and power and all the consolations of the world?

And finally…

Ted Kennedy belongs to his family, to the Catholic Church, and — as representative of the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — to the United States of America. But before he belonged to any of those, he belonged to God, and it is to God he eventually stands. If we knew nothing of him beyond that one unalterable fact, it would be enough to warrant our heartfelt prayers on his behalf. With all we do (and do not) know of God’s Ted Kennedy — and all we know of ourselves, of our own sins, our humiliations and triumphs, our public moments of indiscretion and our private agonies — our  instincts to prayer should not stumble before the shame of another, or we shame ourselves.

We should pray for the Kennedys. And for all the nation’s leaders…