The Catholic blogosphere, which generally crosses the political spectrum, has been ablaze with the subject of Ted Kennedy’s death.  What I have encountered has been just- neither sugarcoating his sins nor claiming to know the status of his soul.  I’ve had a lot of disparate thoughts about this subject, but I wanted to add my two cents in my own little corner of the internet.

From a Catholic perspective, there are a few things to be said about the senator.  There are rumors (many substantiated) of infidelity and alcoholism.  There is the sad story of Mary Jo Kopechne whose life was imperiled by Kennedy and whose death was caused by his failure to procure help.  And the clincher for most devout Catholics- the one thing that they really can’t get past- is his support for abortion.

And by all rights, abortion is something we should never “get past.”  There is no getting over so grave an evil.

But stories have started to trickle out that have made me look Ted Kennedy in a different light.  I don’t do well at personal malice (atleast of people I don’t know, excluding Andrew Jackson whom I despise– no room for explanation), so I never disliked Teddy K– in fact, he’s someone I imagine I would really like on a personal level.  He and his family also have my sympathy for having suffered so many tragedies.  It cannot have been easy to have been the last brother out of four when the other three all died young and tragically.

The stories have to do with prayer.  I heard someone say that the Eucharist was the center of his life.  I don’t know if that was true.  But I do know of two different people, both of whom disagreed with him politically, that they saw him praying.

The first is from Kathryn Lopez, who writes for the National Review, saw him at daily Masses in DC when she dropped in from an internship at the Heritage Foundation (a conservative thinktank).  And not just once or twice.  As she said, “[H]e probably led some people astray by his example. But our faith also teaches that we are all sinners and that there is redemption.”

The second is from a man, I don’t remember his name, who lives in the area of the basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, covered in the Boston Herald.  He described himself as a ’small goverment guy,’ and also as someone who dropped into the basilica having been taught by nuns to visit our Mother daily.  He too saw Senator Kennedy there, in the pew, deep in prayer.  This gentleman, who serves as an acolyte at noon dailies, had hoped he’d be allowed to serve, political differences aside.  Most important to me, however, is that these stories were not told while the senator lived– his prayers were not for show.

There is no escaping the fact that Kennedy’s flaws and particularly his public political support for abortion have given scandal and also have harmed the Church through tacit encouragement of the view that one can be a Catholic in good standing and support morally objectionable causes that have been expressly prohibited by the Vatican.  But there is also no escaping God, whose standard shows all of us that our “good standing” leaves quite a lot to be desired.

I will make no excuses for Senator Kennedy’s actions;  they are grave ones indeed.  But reading all these little tidbits, listening to the eulogies at the wake and the funeral (Teddy Jr.’s was especially good), I felt little tugs on my memory.  Wisps of the story wafted around my brain until I could finally grasp just whom this Ted Kennedy I was just starting to know reminded me of:  the tax collector in the temple.

Remember that parable?  Two men go to the temple to pray.  The first is a pharisee who thanks God that he follows all the laws and is better than lots of other people, including the second man.

The second man, a public sinner by virtue of being a tax collector, doesn’t even approach the front, doesn’t even look heavenward.  Instead, so conscious is he of his sin that he only stands, pleading with God, “Have mercy on me, a sinner!”

I don’t have any special knowledge of anything, let alone Ted Kennedy’s soul.  But, for all his faults, though they were grave and in some cases persistent, I just have this inkling that he clung to prayer like that second man.  The good father at the Byzantine Rite church we go to occasionally said today, in that Tradition, we say that we are the first of sinners in the Liturgy– a Liturgy which is suffused with petitions for God to be merciful.  Perhaps that is the lesson of Senator Kennedy’s life to those of us who remain- a reminder that we are all wholly dependent on the mercy of God.

And just because it’s a beautiful prayer that bears repeating, here is the prayer Byzantine Rite Catholics (in various Churchs- e.g. Ukrainian Catholic Church), say before receiving the Eucharist:

I believe, O Lord, and confess that You are indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, Who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.

Of Your mystical supper, make me a partaker this day, O Son of God, for I will not speak of Your mysteries to Your enemies, nor like Judas will I give You a kiss, but like the good thief will I confess to You.

Remember me, O Lord, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

Remember me, O Master, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

Remember me, O Holy One, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

Not for judgment, nor for condemnation be for me the partaking of these Your Holy Mysteries O Lord, but for the healing of my body and soul.

O God be merciful to me a sinner. God, cleanse my sins and have mercy on me. Innumerably have I sinned, forgive me, O Lord.

I know that a lot of people supported our new President’s election most fervently.  There have also been debates that basically circle around the idea of how much opposition loyalty covers when we speak of a loyal opposition (for a debate on this subject, check out this post and the subsequent discussion by my friend the Raving Theist).  

It seems to me that where some extremists during the last administration made the ridiculous accusation that those who opposed the war were somehow unpatriotic, well, we haven’t gotten better now that hope and change have come to Washington.  I don’t know a single Democratic voter who wanted Bush’s policies to succeed, but now it appears that not wanting Pres. Obama’s policies to succeed somehow amounts to treachery or hatred.  If someone truly believes that his policies will be bad (and in the pro-life crowd, that pretty much amounts to a genocide of the unborn), then you’d be inconsistent in hoping he succeeds.  What pacifist would one reasonably expect to support Bush’s wars while opposing war in general?  

But I digress.  Fr. Longenecker has expressed exceedingly well those aspects that should give anyone pause when voting for a politician.  His remarks are in regards to Pres. Obama, but they are valid for anyone (and read the comments box at his page for his delineation of the difference between liberal and conservative ideologues).  Highlights:

He may be a Messiah, but he is also a Minotaur. That is to say, he is bull headed. He is bull headed as are all ideologues. The ideologue is different from an idealist because the idealist has a belief and faith whereas the ideologue has dogma and certainty. The dogma he holds to is even more insidious because he does not believe in dogma, and his certainty is frightful because it brooks no opposition.

…

This ideological Messianic minotaur (with his soaring rhetoric and inspiring vision for a brave new world) seems to be the most wonderful kind of politician, when in fact he is the worst kind of politician. He is the worst kind of politician because he believes himself to be the best kind of person. But he is the worst kind of person because he really believes he can do no wrong. He is so convinced of the rightness of his ideology that he will not hear reason from anyone, least of all from the fearless little matador who dons a tri-cornered hat and ridiculous tight trousers and tries to skewer the bull.

…

This is why I dislike and distrust and fear the Messianic Minotaurs: because they believe they can do no wrong. These are the political Pharisees, the ones who, history has shown us, slaughter millions to create a master race, or effect a more equitable redistribution of wealth to bring about a ‘just and fair’ revolution. These are the ones who self righteously accept the adulation of the crowds as their just due.

The whole post is definitely worth reading (and covers also the difference between idealist and idealogue).  These elements should give us concern about any politician.  They take on somewhat different characters as left or right ideologues, but the problem remains the same.  And the answer lies with us:  we need to stop exalting people, and exalt the only Man who really can save us.

Shortly before the election, living deep in the “blue-state” heartland, I ordered a bumpersticker I intend to leave on for all elections.  It reads, “I already have a Savior.  I’m looking for a President.”  The widespread adulation of public figures, be they the first African-American President or a pop-star, is a ridiculous attempt to find someone worthy of worship, but it will never work out, because they are flawed human beings like the rest of us.  It’s not even fair to treat any politician like that, let alone being illogical and irresponsible.  I’ll put this out there:  We Cannot Save Ourselves.  Every attempt to make the human race better has generally had the opposite effect.  We can’t organise our way to utopia (sorry, Marx), or think our way to goodness (sorry, Enlightenment thinkers).  There’s only one Savior I know of who can help, and he didn’t exalt himself.  

I really encourage everyone to read the full post by Fr. Longenecker, and I hope to post again today or tomorrow.

-the Rosy Gardener