Senator Edward Kennedy was a great man, but he was not perfect. Kennedy did a lot of good but not everything he did was good. He himself accepted this in a letter he wrote to Pope Benedict shortly before his death. The Lion of the Senate listed the myriad initiatives he took to help the poor and the importance he gave to his faith. However, he himself acknowledged his failings to always be a faithful Catholic.
In the last years of his life, he battled with cancer and finally succumbed to it. Taking part in Kennedy's funeral rites were two cardinals and priests from at least four dioceses. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston presided at the funeral, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, presided at the burial.
Conservative Catholics were scandalised. An editorial in Lifesite News, a pro-life website, said Kennedy's funeral "has the potential to be a scandal that will make Notre Dame's Obama Day a walk in the park". The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts described the funeral Mass as "evidence of the corruption which pervades the Catholic Church in the US" while Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, decried the "irreversible" damage that allowing Kennedy a Catholic funeral had caused the Church.
A statement from the Archdiocese of Boston said "the senator was a regular communicant at parishes in Washington, DC, and in Massachusetts. The purpose of the funeral liturgy is to pray for the soul of the deceased person. Our prayer is inspired by our hope in God's mercy and forgiveness. Senator Kennedy, like any person, was imperfect and in need of God's mercy."
Mgr O'Malley, in his regular blog on the website of the archdiocese, acknowledged both the "profound effect of Catholic social teaching on so many of the programmes and policies espoused by Senator Kennedy" which benefited millions, as well as "a tragic sense of lost opportunity in his lack of support for the unborn".
He continued: "At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church."
He said the way to change abortion law is to change people's hearts. "We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief and loss."
Had Kennedy lived in another part of the world, would he have been treated with the same pastoral solicitude?
Media reports regarding a 100-page document that has just been released by the Polish episcopate would tend to indicate that he would have been treated differently in Poland. According to the reports, the document reminds Catholic politicians that if they support abortion, they risk excommunication from the Church.
However, the Polish document also says: "It is absolutely not true that a politician, or a government member, has to, or can, act against his conscience."
Has anyone the right to accuse Kennedy that he acted against his conscience when he voted the way he did on abortion? Who will abrogate to himself the right to intrude in that most sacred and intimate space where we, fragile men or women, meet face to face with the omnipotent God?
Perhaps, then, even in Poland, Kennedy would have been given a Catholic funeral presided by a cardinal or two.