After hearing about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death yesterday, I tweaked my Facebook status update to say something along these lines: “Imagining the conversation JFK, RFK and EMK are having right now …” I decided not to include the second part: “wherever it is that Kennedys go when they die.”
An old friend from high school chimed in with a remark about a mob meeting. “Too early?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied. “Well, at least I didn’t bring up MJK,” she shot back.
That’s Mary Jo Kopechne, the young aide who was killed when Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chapaquiddick and failed to report the accident for several hours.It was a stain that forever tarnished Kennedy’s career, and probably killed any chance he ever had of getting to the White House.
My friend’s quick-to-judge comment about Chapaquiddick has had me thinking about notions of sin and redemption, which Kennedy wrestled with all too often. Our pal Jim Martin tackles it today up at America Magazine’s blog:
A few years ago, I was directing a retreat with a pastoral associate in a Jesuit parish in New York, for young adults. The theme was the saints, and how we are all called to holiness. … My friend began to talk about the long and complicated life of Dorothy Day, the American-born founder of the Catholic Worker movement. … My friend said this, “Imagine all the good that would have never been done if Dorothy had said, “I had an abortion. What can God do with me?”
That quote came to mind when I saw the famous pictures of the submerged car at Chappaquiddick in the newspapers today. … Imagine all the good that would have never gotten done-for the poor, especially-if (Kennedy) had said, “I have sinned; what can God do with me?”
On a different note altogether, Michael Paulson up at The Boston Globe profiles the Mission Hill church that will host Kennedy’s funeral on Saturday. It’s a place where Kennedy frequently stopped for prayer as his daughter battled lung cancer:
Early in its history, there were so many reported miracles that the church was called the “Home of Wonders.” In more recent years, a “healing priest” named the Rev. Edward McDonough drew thousands of ailing people to the basilica.
And, on one final Kennedy note, Amy Sullivan over at Time offers a quick survey of Kennedy’s private Catholic faith:
And ultimately, says (author and ethicist Sean) Casey, Senator Kennedy’s relationship with Catholicism is one familiar to many American Catholics. “He went through a period of alienation from the church,” says Casey. “But he came back on his own terms, he made a form of peace with the church. That should give hope to lots of Catholic Democrats that they might find a way to stay in the fold.”
