Thoughts on Ted Kennedy's Funeral

After seeing that dog and pony show yesterday, I don’t know how this country survived 150 years prior to the birth of Ted Kennedy.

I was greatly saddened by seeing Cardinal O’Malley presiding at the Mass. (As a technical note, even through O’Malley did not say the Mass, the ranking prelate is considered the one who presides.) There was quite a lot of pressure put on His Eminence not to show up. American Life League actually sent a letter to O'Malley and started a petition. In the end, O’Malley gave the final invocation committing Senator Kennedy to God’s Mercy, which was OK, but his presence at the Mass gave Kennedy’s funeral in a Catholic Church a legitimacy. I am a great fan of Cardinal O’Malley and will defer judgment until I learn more about the situation hopefully through his blog. O'Malley did not look overly happy to be there.

Very noteworthy, O'Malley did not change into his vestments until right before he gave the final blessing. He changed post-Consecration, which I have never seen a priest do in my life. This could have been his way of portraying he was not partaking in the funeral mass, just the blessing of mercy. We also do not know if a supervisory request was made of him to be present.

When O’Malley greeted the Obama’s prior to Mass, Joe Biden extended his hand to O’Malley. O’Malley abruptly walked away, but then did shake hands with everyone in the first row at the Sign of Peace, including Biden’s. Joe Biden did receive Communion. The wide angle shot had the Obamas letting Biden out for Communion, and then cut away. It was a day of scandals. It was noteworthy also that no cameras were on the politicians receiving Communion. If you think this was random, think so more.

Fr. Mark Hession giving the Homily reminded me of Fr. Jenkins give his address at Notre Dame, trying to justify what he was doing and the life of Ted Kennedy. Maybe if you have to justify a life in a homily, you should take a step back.

George W. and Hillary where getting along swimmingly. I have a strong belief the George W. Bush will convert to Roman Catholicism. Love the fact that four former Presidents had to listen to the Ave Maria.

Mark Steyne brought up a very good point this week. The animosity and polarizations of America’s political parties origin can be traced precisely back to Ted Kennedy at the Judge Bork hearings:

"But leaving aside for the moment Chappaquiddick, which I think is, would be a stain on any man’s record, and the way he dealt with it, in a way, is an even greater stain, putting that to one side, I think I would credit him, by and large, with the politics of the modern era. And when I listen to Orrin Hatch talking about his terrific geniality and bipartisan spirit and all the rest of it, I think back to what he said about Judge Bork at those confirmation hearings twenty years ago, and I think actually a lot of the poison in our politics dates from that. I mean, it was an absurd caricature of Judge Bork’s views, it was utterly false in many respects, the idea that Robert Bork is in favor of segregated lunch counters and all the rest of it, I think it was a disgusting act from a disgusting man. But it helps you understand that a man who could behave as he did at Chappaquiddick would think nothing of doing what he did to Judge Bork in 1987."

So to say Kennedy reached out to the other side of the table, as much as I heard this yesterday, if fiction. He reached out to the other side when he needed something done.

To have his grandchild read a petition in the middle of the mass praying that we pass National Health Care and excepting the gay community more was an outrage and the exploitation of a minor. It is par for the course because the Kennedy’s have always used the Catholic Church to their benefit when needed.

Very surprisingly, Obama's Eulogy was very lacking. His oratory skills took the day off. I was expecting him to bring the place down. He seemed tired and not engaged. Could be the stress of the office is taking a tole. This could have been such a moment to seize for him with his popularity plummeting. Ted Kennedy Jr. stole the show and the limelight from the President. Maybe the wrong Ted Kennedy son is in politics.

Archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick oversaw the grave site service. Another thing that needs an explanation.

Fox news mentioned the Vicki Kennedy carried herself with all the grace and dignity as the former Kennedy widows at their husband’s funeral. I totally agree.

Fr. Euteneuer from Human Life International has some worthy thoughts on the subject of Ted Kennedy being burried in a Catholic Church:

"...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.

...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.

...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."

Euteneuer has a little bit of Chaput in him. He drives a truck of truth through the veils of deceipt.

Fr. Euteneuer Cares Not For Oprah's Millions

As just mentioned, I wrote a post in regard to Oprah Winfrey's dark spirituality this June. When blogging, sometimes I feel that I am shouting into an empty barrel due to the one-way nature of blogging. Yesterday, Fr. Euteneuer came to the same conclusion on Oprah, which makes me think that he might be preaching at the other side of the same barrel.

Big Hat tip on this article to VCR friend Leticia at Causa Nostrae Laetitiae.

"...Our country’s richest woman [Oprah] is easily one of the most spiritually bankrupt people in America and also one of the most shockingly popular. How does a New Age con artist like Oprah get so many people to literally adore her? She did not make $260 million last year by feeding people solid food. She deals in fads, feelings and frauds—it’s that simple—and apparently she is very effective at convincing people to follow her well-packaged crock of nonsense. Of a recent political speech, she admitted fawningly that she had “cried her eyelashes off” when she heard it, and I am sure her crocodile tears were persuasive to her vast audience. For people schooled in the truth, the reaction would be very different: I saw the same speech and could barely keep myself from throwing up, but they don’t pay me $260 million a year. [Blogger Note: Bonus points on the nausea theme, Father.]

When asked why she refused to interview her anointed one’s political opponent, she balked and got caught in a nasty public relations double-bind which is what usually happens to people who play games with their own popularity. Her refusal would have been easier to swallow if she had just said simply that she didn’t like the other candidate and didn’t want her on the show; that we can accept! But then again, basic honesty is probably above Oprah’s pay grade. [Blogger Note 2: Double bonus points on the pay grade reference, Father.]The truth is that Oprah has put her social clout to partisan political use, and when she was called on to be fair, she just couldn’t admit that she was playing the political hack.

I do think Oprah’s menace is fundamentally spiritual though, and that it feeds off the growing spiritual superficiality of the American populace. Its treachery is not to be underestimated. Oprah not only believes in but forcefully advocates pernicious New Age trends like Helen Schucman’s A Course In Miracles and Eckhart Tolle’s terrible esoteric movement that is trampling down Christian values and opening up a spiritual vacuum in the hearts of millions as we speak. Having the life sucked out of our souls by spiritually bankrupt “celebrities” is a slow spiritual death, to put it mildly. However, Oprah is just the worst case scenario of what is reaching epidemic proportions in a personality-obsessed, spiritually infantile and media-saturated culture."

Bravo, God Bless, Father!

An Unfiltered Gospel

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, from Human Life International, posts a gutsy letter in the same line of thought as my Ted Kennedy thoughts below:

http://www.hli.org/sl_2008-05-23.html

"While I pray for Sen. Kennedy’s recovery from a brain tumor, I pray more for his recovery from the cancerous metastasis of abortion ideology in his soul."

On an exciting note, he references a letter sent by Kennedy to a constituent stating Kennedy's strong pro-life position more than 30 years. I was 3 years old when this letter was delivered to my house, addressed to my father.

I often think of developing a web site called VianneysList.com, that recognizes outstanding priests who preach the unfiltered Gospel. Fr. Euteneuer would be in the inaugural class, as well as priest like Benedict Groschel, Fr. Corapi, Fr. Frank Pavone, etc...

Fr. Euteneuer also wrote an outstanding, and once again gutsy, column that called Bishop Lynch of St. Petersburg to the mat on fleeing his diocese in silence while Terri Schiavo starved to death.