Seeker of Truth

Ruminations of One Suspended between Catholic Christianity and Scientific Utopianism

Name:
Location: Washington, United States

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

My Comments to Sean Card. O'Malley's Blog Entry Justifying the Edward Kennedy Funeral

Your Eminence,
This Mass may well have soothed the sore feelings of your Boston constituents, for whom Kennedy worship seems at times more important than worship of Christ, but it cannot wipe away the stain that the late Senator has left on the religio-political landscape of America.
I think we all can agree to pray for him and forgive him as we hope our Father will forgive us. This, however, is a far cry from putting up a spectacle of the magnitude we have just witnessed. Would St. Augustine have celebrated a grand Mass for a Roman senator who held openly manichaean, donatist, or whatever was the heresy of his times, views? Would St. Thomas of Aquino have presided over the exaltation of a Cathar? (Excuse me if my heresies are off the timeline, I am not a historian, but I think you get the point).
In fact, we now look back at times when the Church seemed so beholden to powerful temporal interests of its times, that Cardinals and even Popes compromised Orthodoxy for political expediency. I do hope these times are not coming back.
Sincerely,
one who is certainly no more worthy than any other sinner, but who would at least feel shame if such a spectacle were considered for his funeral.