White Wash

Edward F. Kennedy has died and like the rest of us, will meet his Creator. The mortality rate is still 100%. With his family's money, he was able to obtain the best possible medical care in the world. But he knew, just as we knew, when he came down to nearby Duke University Hospital, that he was walking very directly to the sound of a muffled drum. Few live very long with his type of cancer. I pray that before he died, he left with his passport in good order. His father, Joseph Kennedy, millionaire, bootlegger, womanizer such an embarrassment to FDR, that he was recalled as an ambassador to the Court of St. James, said, “there are three rules to succeed in politics. The first rule is money. The second rule is money. The third rule is more money.” And so, with money, Kennedy bought the presidency for JFK and a senatorship for his youngest child, Edward. Pity that Joseph Kennedy never heard Dr. Richard John Neuhaus, who died earlier this year, the brilliant speaker, writer and editor of the Catholic journal, First Things, said, in speaking of the crisis in the Catholic Church, “There are three answers, fidelity, fidelity, and fidelity.”

I love the Roman Catholic Church, the Universal Catholic Church. I have been to the Vatican in Rome several times. I am always awe struck with the opulence and grandeur of these ancient structures. I met some young students from America at a Rome hotel; and they asked me to accompany them to St. Peter's. This was the first trip to Rome for these young Catholics. It was a holy year and we entered through a Holy Door. (The Holy Door is of interest in itself at the five basilicas in Rome. It was a reflection of the Jewish Jubilee, but with changes of the Jubilee opened more often than every 50 years, more recently every 33 years. The Holy Door tradition started in 1499. A door bricked, was taken down with much ceremony. This happens only at the basilicas. On this trip, I think I went through the Holy Door in each of the five basilicas.) These young Catholics, very flamboyant in their lifestyle, were weeping as they moved around the Vatican; because, I do believe for the first time, they had a sense of their church, its traditions, its history.

I do not believe anyone can enter the great grandeur of the great Catholic cathedral whether in Montreal or New York City, without feeling it's historical presence, which working hands and giving hearts have provided for those who worship and those who visit. When you stand before the great rose window in Notre Dame, Paris, you can only imagine what the peasants from the fields in France must have felt as they stood there. That is the reason I gave so much encouragement to those young Catholics who asked me to visit with them. No one can witness the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel and remain unchanged.

My quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church is simple. Our blessed Lord, almighty God, in a tent of flesh dwelling among us, was poor that we might become rich. In his poverty and servitude, He would never have desired the opulence of the Catholic Cathedral to honor Him, when throughout the world there were so many of his young followers who did not have food or descent drinking water.

I did not listen to the Kennedy funeral service, but from what I have heard from others, it matched the extravagance of his two slain brothers at St. Matthew's and St. Patrick's. I understand that the Boston basilica was filled with celebrities, pompous politicians, the surviving, living presidents except for one. The entire extravagance was propped up by the Catholic hierarchy, resplendent in their traditional garb, bells and smells, and the liturgical benevolence which could be accorded even to a Christian. It is not my job to judge Senator Kennedy, God has already judged him; he does, by now, know the verdict.

Catholics, Christians should be embarrassed that church and church goers are so hypocritical in according to this man, an almost saintly launching in spite of his lifestyle. Like the Muslim president who spoke at his funeral, he had celebrated a Culture of Death from Chappaquiddick to every abortion vote made. Supposedly, he was a champion of health care, but satisfied to see the most innocent killed (abortion of babies, euthanasia of the elderly). His morals were on a plane with his supporters; how could a womanizer not support same sex marriage The thing that bothers me most in this case and always, is the fact that young people seeing such a hypocrite honored in such a way by the Church, flanked by the garbed hierarchy of the Church, unprotesting about anything in his life, that one can be totally immoral and face none of the consequences PREACHED by the same church. It is my understanding that a Catholic funeral service is supposed to be long on Catholic rituals and traditions and short on eulogy. It is my understanding that a Catholic funeral service is supposed to be seeking mercy for the warts of the deceased and humility, not pride, from family and friends. I was told that as is the case in many funerals now, much to the disgust of this onlooker, that the family participated in the memorializing. There is a place for the family and friends to memorialize the deceased. It is usually called a visitation, when family can receive friends, have quiet conversation, about memories. Even this tradition should be kept in reverence. A friend told me recently about attending a visitation for one of his friends. He said, “There was so much noise, so much hilarity, that I just had to leave. I saw no sorrow in the passing of my friend from his family.”

The whitewash of a life of excess is always attempted with charity. It is not difficult for one of the wealthiest men in the country to give large amounts of money to “do gooder” organizations or even buy love and respect from his own political party, or even that of other politicians. I don't doubt that he was a gregarious, fun-loving father, friend and neighbor. Great wealth can do what great wealth can do. According to reliable reports, the huge trusts of the Kennedy family are in foreign banks. I believe I would have a more gregarious, fun-loving look on life if I had been born in a mansion, if I had had the privilege of a fraternity style education, if I could have hob-knobbed with the rich and famous all over the world, particularly those with power. To whom much is given, much is required. (Luke 12:48)

The most fundamental sin of this time in history is the sin of idolatry. It is my opinion that Senator Kennedy, aided and abetted by the liberal news media, worshiped at the alter of every idol: fame, fortune, power, addictive behavior (alcohol, food and sex). The general public seeing and hearing of his excessive behavior their entire life, seeing and hearing the enabling of the Catholic Church, must again have their doubts towards Christianity and certainly the integrity of the Church, Universal. More important than one's prestige, and power which money can afford, is the responsibility of living a moral life before the world so that at the end, the prize at the end of the race, is spiritual as well as physical. (I Corinthians 9:24) You can whitewash any old fence and make it look better; but underneath, there must be solid material.