What Is A Catholic To Pray, Think and Do As To Ted Kennedy

I have never been a Ted Kennedy hater. I very much wanted him by some stroke of Divine Intervention defeated but alas that never happened.

I once researched why Ted Kennedy was so popular. In a sense he is very much like the famous (now passed) Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Every Saturday , after his staff went through the papers, the good Senator would call every girl that was going to get married that next week and say CONGRATS. He knew all politics was local. Kennedy has largely been the same way.

Mrs Scalia, who is also a well known Catholic Blogger I link, have written a piece over at Inside Catholic called The Crucible of Ted Kennedy It is a well done piece and I agree totally that should Catholics attitudes. The comments though as to her piece though still show almost a sense of betrayal as to Kennedy and raise of course important points.

Ted Kennedy it should be remembered was Pro-Life as to the abortion issue once. He and his family like other Catholic political icons such as the Cuomos etc got quite a bit of political mileage from the Catholic connection. However in the end at a crucial point they deserted some BASIC tenets of their faith. To see how truly devastating this was see at Catholics in the Public Square good piece Catholics, Republicans and Abortion: How We Got Where We Are Today which links this article Criss-Cross: Democrats, Republicans, and Abortion

Also despite his good personal relations with Senate Republicans, Kennedy could serve the political bile up to groups that thought opposite of him. That is all at play.

In the end he was and is a scandal to many Catholics. We are left with a great "what if". What if Bobby had survived ? Would he have been a mitigating force against the movement for Life? OR would he have embraced the same things as his brother. In Kennedy we see both unanswered questions and to many a waste. Many people are asking and wondering why would this politician that received the fruits of the public trust now be protected from the truthful analysis of his career. Well he should not. It is evident that some personal failings of him had true real public consequences

However the Mrs Scalia is right and as Catholics we should know she is right. Any person that takes the Sacrament of Confession in a serious nature should be the first to show mercy. As Christians we should know all about Mercy. I GUESS people are still saying the standard prayer of Contrition in Confession. I know I am. We say:

O my God,I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee,

and

I detest all my sins,because I dread the loss of heaven,and the pains of hell;but most of all because they offend Thee, my God,Who are all good and deserving of all my love

.I firmly resolve,with the help of Thy grace,to confess my sins,to do penance,and to amend my life.
Amen.

There are far more vivid Catholic prayers that hopefully are coming back in "vogue" that truly remind us of the Mercy that Christ gives us underserving sinners

She says in part:
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?

I think she is very right on that. She ends her very good piece(Read it all) with:
The crucible is a melting pot in which materials of varying grades and purities are rendered into something fiery and fluid that can be poured, molded, cured, and formed. As the Kennedy family is consumed by its heat, some of us may want to pick carefully through our own embers with a good old-fashioned examination of conscience, to recognize "what we have done, and what we have failed to do." Because sooner or later, it will be our turn in the crucible, and our own beams and splinters will feed it.

That is true too. It is a difficult balance. Catholics and other should give an honest appraisal of Senator Kennedy's career. However at the end we must do what we are called upon. To pray for him and his family as much as we can. For some reason this is when we Catholics and Christians fail to be a new creature in Christ. We often do not show the same forgiveness or mercy to others that the Lord gives us. He gives it just for the asking even with "imperfect contrition"

So it is not a time for a whitewash but as Mrs Scalia notes :
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

I actually think that most Catholics and Christians are doing this. At least I hope so.