When the history of the United States Senate is taught 100 years from now, the syllabus will be organized around six names: Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Lafollette, Taft and Edward M. Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was arguably the most effective U.S. senator of the last century. His name graces nearly 1,000 laws, 300 of which he wrote himself, including some of the most far-reaching and lasting legislation of the postwar period: the Civil Rights Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children’s health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act.
He was the third-longest serving U.S. senator, yet his success cannot be attributed simply to his 47-year tenure. Unlike his brothers, Kennedy possessed the character of a legislator: a tenacious will, a keen, tactical mind and patience to match his passion. His death on Aug. 25 silenced an unrelenting advocate for the nation’s poor and marginalized, a lifelong champion for universal health care and a vehement opponent of war as an instrument of foreign policy.
As the nation’s gaze was again directed to Arlington National Cemetery, where the Kennedys had assembled to bury the last of four brothers, we were reminded that Ted Kennedy’s death also severed our most visible remaining link to another era: a time when Catholics had finally found their way in national politics, on a path that had led to the White House. As the senator’s hearse paused at the steps of the U.S. Senate in a final tribute, we had a moment to reflect on how dramatically Washington has changed since it first welcomed the president’s youngest brother in 1962. Some of that change has been for the better, including a Senate that looks more like America than it did in Ted Kennedy’s earliest days.
Yet that increasing diversity has been accompanied by a dramatic decline in gentility, one of the hallmarks of true statesmanship. Kennedy’s legislative career began in a capitol in which partisans vigorously debated, but civility nearly always prevailed. This ethos shaped both his public and private lives. Kennedy’s capacity for friendship was legendary; he numbered his friends in the thousands. They came from both sides of the Senate aisle, from America’s boardrooms as well as its union halls, from the mastheads of both The New Republic and The National Review. His death was mourned by those both at the center and at the margins of national life. His talent for building effective coalitions is already greatly missed.
Like his five illustrious predecessors in the U.S. Senate, indeed like all of us, Kennedy’s life, in public as well as in private, was a mix of light and shadow. Yet unlike most of us, his successes and failures were on constant public display. His heroic defense of civil rights, for instance, even in the face of raging mobs during Boston’s school busing crisis, was accompanied by his tragic support for abortion virtually on demand. His courage during the depths of his harrowing, public mourning for his brothers was followed by moral and political disaster at Chappaquiddick and, later, in Palm Beach. It was obvious that he knew something of sin and suffering. In the end it seemed he had also learned something about redemption. His second marriage, in 1992, to a spirited Louisianan, Victoria Reggie, appeared to rescue him from the worst in himself and the ghosts of his past. It also brought new luster to his virtues.
One of the last survivors of America’s most famous Catholic family, he rarely spoke openly about his faith. At Kennedy’s graveside, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick read from the senator’s recent letter to Pope Benedict XVI: “I know that I have been an imperfect human being,” Kennedy wrote, “but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.”
Ted Kennedy had a complicated relationship with his church. Her faith was his own, he said, sustaining him through more tragedy than anyone should bear in a lifetime. The Sermon on the Mount and the church’s social teaching inspired his public life. Until his death, however, he remained at odds with some of those very same teachings. “I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness,” Kennedy wrote, “and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings.”
In this final sentiment, perhaps, Ted Kennedy was not unusual, but simply one among many contemporary American Catholics who struggle to navigate the tension between their faith beliefs and their civic ideals and obligations. America is a moral complex in which truth and freedom appear in perpetual tension. This is truer today than ever before. Perhaps no one knew that better than Ted Kennedy, whose life was as complicated, as tragic and ultimately as inspiring as the place and the times in which he lived.
I think this was a fair and respectful (which should be our first instinct when speaking of the dead), appraisal of Sen. Kennedy. However, I do think you missed an important aspect of his life to criticize. In this essay you bemoan the loss of civility in our current political discourse - well, Ted Kennedy himself certainly helped chip away at that dam. In 1987, on the floor of the Senate, and on national TV, he said this about Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork: "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy. . .No justice would be better than this injustice."
Those vicious slanders marked the beginning of a new era in partisan politics. And it just seems to be getting worse. Thanks to Ted Kennedy, we now have a new term, and that is "Borked!"
Sen. Kennedy, his family and most members of Congress and the President send their children to private schools. The Sen. consistently opposed educational freedom for inner city parents. No to vouchers/tax credits. The schools in most cases are Catholic schools. You failed to note this in your comments. A tragedy.
It is unfortunate that Ted Kennedy's personal dedication to the Gospel's social action teaching as recorded in Mt.25 vs 34-46 was marred by his political choice to support and promote uterine homocide by way of the so-called "abortion rights" of women, for which he shared moral guilt and responsibility tens of millions of times. His life was indeed a mixture of light and shadow, a combination in which we all share in some way, to some degree. Reflectively then, it's important to take to heart the following words of Jesus in judging Ted Kennedy's numerous moral lapses, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone!"
It's said standing behind every successful man is a woman. Kennedy was in some ways successful and for that success we can thank Victoria Reggie, whom he married in 1992, although it is troubling to ponder how, Ted Kennedy as a Catholic, was able to divorce and remarry apparently with Church aproval. At any rate as noted in "Camelot's End" it was Victoria who rescued him "from the worst in himself and the ghosts of his past" - that is, except for the demon of his preocupation with the destruction of human uterine life, his political choice!
However, in his end of life letter to the Pope, Ted Kennedy publicly confessed, "I have fallen short through human failing" which seems to me a lot like the confession of the Publican in the Gospel who humbly said, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner!" In response Jesus said he went away, "Justified." Yes, Ted Kennedy was an "imperfect human being" as he told the Pope in his letter, precisely the kind of person Jesus died for. Yes, Ted Kennedy "knew something of sin" as "Camelot's End" asserts. He was no saint, but through the mercy of God let's call him a repentant sinner!
Seventy years ago as a little boy my grandmother told me the following story which I see as applicable to Ted Kennedy. There was a "public sinner" proclaimed so by the village gossip because of his scandalous life. Wagging tongues said he would certainly go to hell when he died. One day he was thrown from a horse and instantly killed and the gossip became shrill - "See, God punished him, he is now in hell" Some months after his death a child walking past his grave tried to pluck a flower that was growning on it, but could not. Indeed even adults could not budge the flower. Finally his grave was dug up and the flower was found rooted in his heart and a voice from the grave was heard saying, "Between the saddle and the ground, mercy sought and mercy found!" Through the inexhaustable Mercy of God and the fervent prayers of his Mom, the saintly Rose Kennedy, may Ted Kennedy rest in peace!
Just as Senator Kennedy used a go-between in his approach to Pope Benedivt XVI, President Obama, he used former senator John Tunney as a go-between with the KGB to advance a Kennedy proposal to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov designed to thwart President Reagan's hard line against the Soviets and enhance his chances at the presidency. The only difference, he insured that his appeal to the Pope would become known while making sure through his legislative skills that his possible treasonous actions against the President and the USA would remain buried.
The KGB document, a May 14, 1983 memo from KGB head Victor Chebrikov to his boss, Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, designated with the highest classification, was first reported in a February 2, 1992 article in the London Times, titled, "Teddy, the KGB and the top secret file," by reporter Tim Sebastian. Russian President Boris Yeltsin had opened the Soviet archives. Sebastian discovered the document in the Central Committee archives specifically.
It never made the news in the USA. nor did his KGB contacts during the Carter administration.
How God will decide the fate of Ted Kennedy's soul is beyond the understanding of mere mortals but the trurh behnd Ted Kennedy the man should be made known to all men and women.
And for those who believe in the superiority of one's own conscience or subscribe to "Between the saddle and the ground, mercy sought and mercy found!" Ted might be having a cold one with Hitler, Stalin, Andropov and Mao in heaven or that other place. The Last Judgmnt is yet to come.
References:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/kgb_kennedy_the_ted_kennedy_i.html
The KGB, Kennedy, and Carter
Kennedy and the KGB
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/kgb_kennedy_the_ted_kennedy_i.html
As Cardinal Arinze recently made very clear, the intrinsic evil of abortion is not a matter of Church law; it is a matter of divine law. Thou shall not kill. Kennedy's support of abortion was a problem in view of the 5th commandment not just "Church teachings."
It is indeed tragic that the Church's "social teaching" is said to have dictated his views on a host of matters affecting the civil order, but not the 5th commandment apparently, or the Church's repeated declarations that the right to be born is the fundamental right underlying all other rights. The Senator's statement that he always respected the fundamental teachings of the Church is at best a cry from someone very lost.
Senator Kennedy made an awful compromise with the culture of death in order to maintain his political base as a liberal Democrat. What a shame. In the intensely poignant words of St. Thomas More, "Why Richard it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul, but for Wales..." Wales in this case could quite easily be substituted for the U.S. Senate.
The dictum of the Church is, "Ubi caritas et unum deus ibi est." The intrinsic crowd lacks charity, the prime virtue of Christianity. They can only see their own political ideology; they stridently object to abortion but refuse to give health care to the poor. Don't kill before birth but afterwards is all right. I think Jesus referred to them as whited sepulchers. For Jesus the virtue of charity was paramount.
Many of the condemnatory submissions to your blog lack compassion and charity. Let Ted Kennedy lie in peace and let him be remembered for the good he did for the poor and disenfranchised rather than the evil he done. RIP
JCVD, I am a total fan.
Good to see America is on the ball when printing comments.
Golly, if JC Van Damme's comment is correct, I wonder if JPII was involved in abortion also since he talked about it so much. And Cardinal Arinze too. And Mother Theresa. And I guess they all lacked charity.
This kind of commentary and third-rate psychoanalysis (note the anonymous source, "many priest I know," and implication that pro-life voices are reacting to guilt over involvement in abortion) is what passes for "charity" among those who constantly decry a lack of charity in the Church. It could just as easily be asserted that those Catholics who assail the "intrinsic" crowd have themselves been involved in abortion at some point in their lives and are projecting their feelings of self-loathing, fear, anger, and guilt on to anyone who points out how awful abortion on demand is.
Abortion: Is this what you mean? Senator Kennedy voted against:
1) Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. 2) Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. 3) Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. 4) Voted No on parental notification of minors who cross state lines for abortions. 5) Voted NO against a ban on human cloning (Source: [url=http://www.ontheissues.org/social/ted_kennedy_abortion.htm]http://www.ontheissues.org/social/ted_kennedy_abortion.htm[/url])
And the band plays on...Senator Kennedy gave unprecedented scandal to American laity and Catholic politicians with his principles. There are much more balanced and clear memorials to the late Senator in "The Catholic Thing" than we find here by the editors.
It is also productive to review the legacy of his many "good works" for the poor and marginalized. Yes, Senator Kennedy was active, but was he correct in his political philosophy and practical application of his views? Being active isn't the same as being right. I would argue that he was woefully off course. Charles Krauthammer assesses his positions as "taking too far." For example, he over shot on Civil Rights creating reverse discrimination and quotas. Second, he fostered a "culture of dependency" through his social reform which ultimately failed miserably and had to be refashioned under the republicans.
As mentioned previously, his foreign policy was often disastrous fighting tooth and nail against Reagan and to a certain extent the Holy Father in tearing down communism.
Senator Kennedy may have professed to be a catholic, but as heard in today's Epistle of St. James at Holy Mass today: I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works (cf. Jas 2:18).
I am always astonished at the way a person who has served the common good is so often remembered for his/her misdeeds than for the generosity of service.
The editorial should serve to remind us all to"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." Kennedy owned up to his wrong-doing and stayed humble before Godde. He got up, dusted himself off and did his best.
Please, God, may I do as well.
Jeannine Burbach
HIS SON JOHN STOLE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN ONE NIGHT WITH THE HELP OF THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICAL MACHINE - CHICAGO - WAS A FAMOUS WOMEN'S CHASER, AND SCANDALOUSLY SHARED THE FAVOUR OF THE MOST FAMOUS AMERICAN DIVA WITH HIS YOUNGER BROTHER WHO MEANWHILE SIRED TEN CHILDREN; IT WAS DISGUSTING AND OFFENSIVE TO THEIR WIVES, AND I BELIEVE THAT IF BOTH HAD NOT BEEN ASSASSINATED THEY WOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED FROM AMERICA'S MEMORY. ALL THEY HAD WAS AGE AND GOOD LOOKS.
AS FOR TED, YOU ALREADY POINT OUT HIS MANY MORAL SCANDALS. AND HIS CONGRESS WORK IS AGAIN A FOUL PLAY, THIS TIME AGAINST CATHOLICISM.
HOW COULD THIS FAMILY, TAINTED FROM THE FIRST TO THE LAST NAMED WITH IMMORAL AND ANTICATHOLIC CONDUCTS BECOME THE PRETENDED FIRST FAMILY OF THE U.S.A., I CANNOT YET UNDERSTAND. A SHORT THREE GENERATIONS, ALL WITHOUT DECENCY, DO NOT DESERVE THE SYMPATHY OF ANY TRUE AND REAL AMERICAN OR FOR THAT MATTER FROM CATHOLICS.
JORIS STEVERLYNCK GONNET - BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.
I am not a subscriber to your magazine. A friend lent me her copy.
I read the editorial Camelot's End and found your opinions confusing and somewhat hypocritical for a Catholic magazine.
First, I disagree that the Kennedy era was Camelot. Oh, some people called JFK's marriage and election a story book romance come true, but Pres. Kennedy was no Arthur. He was an inexperienced senator whose lack of experience led world leaders to test him - a la the Bay of Pigs fiasco. His tragic death led to an unfortunate legend.
To equate his brother Ted with the other distinguished senators in your opening paragraph does a disservice to those fine men. Ted Kennedy was a power broker who learned how to work the system to his ends. He was a politician's politician. Look what he did in his home state. He determined to block a republican governor from appointing a republican senator, but wanted to reverse that when there was a democrat governor. If his brother was not JFK, if his name wasn't Kennedy, Ted would probably never have been a senator.
What really troubled me was your - and in turn America's - acceptance of what I call the weak or non existence of Catholicism in our "Catholic" politicians. As a young man, Ted showed one trait that revealed a lot about his character. I refer to his abandonment of the woman in his sinking car as he saved himself. His long delay in seeking help, his lack of trying to save her, told me where his priorities were.
When he began his political career, he was pro-life. When that stand became unpopular - a possible threat to his career - he became pro-choice. Ted would always follow where the crowd led. If it conflicted with his church's teaching, so be it. As you stated " Ted...had a complicated relationship with his church." How true! If a church teaching would lose him votes, he abandoned that teaching.
He was a sandal to serious Catholics. He gave Catholicism a bad name. When a public figure calls himself a Catholic, but ignores or refutes the church's teaching, then he damages the church's image in the country. It seems the "modern" day Catholic feels free to set their own standards of what they will believe or not. Ted was not alone in this lack of sincere belief. There are several prominent politicians who call them selves Catholic but are not.
The world is a blend of secular and sacred. Ted chose to conform to the secular leanings of his cohorts. That was his choice. It would have been better if he had chosen to conform himself to the sacred. Standing by the church's principles - pro-life, marriage as a serious commitment between a man and a woman, - would have been an inspiration to those who vacillate with the times. He could have been remembered as a man of true courage and principle in a materialistic world.
Instead, he made deals. Ted Kennedy was not a hero to me. He was just another example of one who sells out to prevailing attitudes that are ever changing. Truth is immutable. Ted was fickle.
Rosemary Nichols