...or is relativism only a sin of you're not a Kennedy?

OK, what am I missing?

The late Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was, by acclamation, a great man. No one in America, with the exception of the right-wing radio crowd, would deny the Senator all of the praise his career in politics has generated. Ted Kennedy was one of the truly great men in America and a force for good. His kind will not soon be seen again.

What confuses me is the obsequiousness of the Catholic Church regarding the Kennedy funeral. The band of brothers who forbade communion to supporters of John Kerry's presidential bid are lining up to pay homage to the memory of Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy was prayed over by more high ranking clergy than was Pope John Paul II. There were so many cardinals at the various services in Boston and Washington that I expected newsmen to report on the appearance of black or white smoke.


While the Kennedy name is inextricably linked to American Catholicism, stretching back to the Presidential race in 1960, Ted Kennedy would be an unlikely candidate for sainthood. His history of public "indiscretions" alone would testify against canonization. His record on the Senate floor reads like the Papal remake of the seven deadly sins. Kennedy's life stood in opposition to virtually every Church doctrine currently at issue. He was divorced; not that you'd ever know it judging by the praise heaped on his current wife by the mourners. He supported gay rights, and, horror of horrors, he favored a woman's right to choose. Any one of these public positions would earn most Catholics in public life a verbal if not literal excommunication. Fortunately, Senator Kennedy will be interred at Arlington Cemetery so the Church will be spared the thorny issue of burying a divorced man in consecrated ground.


Ted Kennedy deserved the grand sendoff he received. For the sake of the Kennedy family it was gratifying that no sour notes were sounded to mar the occasion. Perhaps the next time Barack Obama accepts an invitation to speak at a Catholic College, the bishops who prayed over Ted Kennedy might remember that hypocrisy, while not a sin, is an unflattering trait in any religion.