Common Ground

Ted Kennedy was laid to rest Saturday and while I had planned just to note the funeral and burial, something that happened during the interment really has been haunting me. I do not plan to "pile on" Teddy at the time of his death, in fact, I am hesitant to even write this and if I do post it, I post it as a commentary to Catholics in this country more than anything else.

With each gathering, be it the wake, the funeral or interment of Teddy, I began to like him just a little bit more. I am sure he would have been fun to have as an Uncle, Grandfather, or as a friend. Putting politics aside, Ted from everything I heard was an OK guy. Of course, no one is really going to say he was an SOB (and I don't mean Sweet Old Bill) at his funeral, even if he were one.

What struck me and bothered me during the funeral was his relationship with the Church and his views of what was right and what was wrong.

Let me say that I am Catholic. I am far from perfect, I have failed myself and my God many times. Over the years I have struggled with my own demons and with my own faith. I am not by far what you would consider a "devout" Catholic like my father, although I hope someday to have someone see my works and acts and say that I am. That would be a high honor, especially if it comes on my judgement day and it is my Lord saying it.

As I have said before, it is not my call who gets into to Heaven and who doesn't or even why they got in. As my best friend always tells me, "Those who you think won't be there just might be and those you think are, just might not be." We are not to judge. But we do, because we are human and don't have that divine gift.

As a Catholic lay person, if we want to be faithful to our God and to the Church, there are some basic tenets, beliefs if you will, that we must believe in. As a good Catholic, we are suppose to follow all. It is not a cafeteria where you take what you like and leave the rest. The major and most important belief is that we believe in the sanctity of life.

I must confess that I myself have had problems with that over the years. Up in till a few years ago, I was a strong believer in the death penalty. I believed that if you intentionally took someone's life, you had to give up yours and to be honest, in some of the most vile and heinous crimes, I still struggle with that. But my Church teaches that taking a life, no matter how vile and disgusting that person may be, is wrong. While I have different ideas about "life in prison" than some, it is still the option of choice for me.

I also believe that when we can and when we have the means, however small, we are our brother's keepers and as we do for the least of these, we do for our God.

I despise those politicians who wear their Catholicism on their sleeve and call themselves "devout" Catholics, but time and time again vote against life. As I have said so many times, no one is forcing you to be Catholic. If you can't believe in even the basic principles of the Church, please find another one. I am sure that there is some Church that does not have the same standards and who would be happy to have you as a member. Being born Catholic does not give you the right to stay Catholic if you refuse to follow the teachings of the church.

But back to Ted. Ted wrote a letter to the Pope (Which is at the end of this commentary) that I thought we would never know the contents of. It was a touching and sorrowful letter from a man who was dying asking for the prayers of the Holy Father. The fact that Ted even felt he needed to write it was sad in and of itself. Here was a man facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his fate. In the letter, he talks about how his faith has carried him though all the trying times of his life and how he has tried to remain faithful to the Church's teachings and to his God. He list his accomplishments as a Senator and how he has fought for those less fortunate than he. It is as if he has to list everything to show how good he was and to convince the Holy Father that he is worthy. He omits the fact that he did not try and help the most vulnerable.

(Editor's note: The parts in green were added after this commentary had been written)

One talking head E. J. Dionne from the Washington Post said on ABC's This Week: "You know, we Catholics believe profoundly in the power of confession, and in a way, part of that letter was Ted Kennedy's last confession, an acknowledgement of sin. What he really did is he got the last word at his own funeral, and it was an extraordinary manifesto in part. And I think he was -- his Catholicism was very important to him. He was a serious churchgoer, and it was not only a way to make a public case for his kind of liberal Catholicism, it was also a way of lobbying Pope Benedict."

What church does this trick or treater go to? Apparently Mr. Dionne and I see things quite differently. Since when do you "lobby" the Pope to change God's position? An "extraordinary manifesto?" The teachings of the Church and of God is not part of a legislative process, where if you get enough votes, God's laws are changed. Yes, we believe in the power of confession and if the confession is from the heart, God will know it and will forgive, but we are taught it must be from the heart and you must truly be sorry and must work to make sure it does not happen again.

There is no deal making, no "lobbying" for your sins. We all must face that and I hope Mr. Dionne understand that before his judgement day. I do not believe that Ted was "lobbying" for his position, I believe that in his way, he was confessing his sins and knowing that he had not done right all the time, asking for forgiveness. I also see no reason why he should have wanted to make this extremely personal letter to his Holiness public for all the rest of us to dissect.

God does not change for us, we must change for God.

His Priest from Hyannisport said that Ted struggled with abortion and wished he could have found a common ground with the Church. As I have said before, please show me the common ground between life and death, good and evil.

But, if we all do some soul searching, we are all trying to find the "common ground" in something, whether it be with our beliefs, a relationship or our Church. We all try and compromise or make deals with God at some time in our life. If we have a belief in God, but we stray from what we know is right, we try and justify it by trying to find some "common ground." In the end, we know there is no common ground.

God does not change for us, we must change for God.

We know they are the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions, but because we are human, we look for the common ground to justify our transgressions.

We as Catholics (and quite honestly as human beings) must stand firm in our beliefs. We need to develop a spine and stand up for what we believe in and what we know in the depths of our heart to be right . We can't look for common ground by saying "I believe that life begins at conception, but......" We need to stand up for our beliefs.

Believe me, it sounds like I am a one trick pony, but I am not. But if we as a society cannot or will not protect the most innocent and most vulnerable, then we as a society stand for nothing and then nothing else matters. As Catholics we believe that "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."

Ted did a lot of good for his fellow man and I hope and pray that he did enough. I hope that he was able to find that "Common Ground" he was searching for. I have no doubt that he felt he was being faithful to the Church and to his God, I just hope that our God saw it that way.

Below is just a portion of the 10 page letter he wrote to the Holy Father:

"Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand-deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Catholic faith is to me, and I am so deeply grateful to him. I hope this letter finds you in good health.

"I pray that you have all of God's blessings as you lead our Church and inspire our world during these challenging times. I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life.

"I have been blessed to be part of a wonderful family. Both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the center of our lives. That gift of faith has sustained and nurtured, and provided solace to me in the darkest hours.

"I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith I have tried to right my path. I want you to know Your Holiness that in my nearly 50 years of elective office, I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I have worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination, and expand access to health care and education. I have opposed the death penalty, and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and been the focus of my work as a United States Senator.

"I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field, and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic Your Holiness. And though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith. I continue to pray for God's blessings on you and on our Church, and would be most thankful for your prayers for me."

Please join me tonight as I pray for the soul of Ted Kennedy.

Please join me tonight as I pray for the soul of our country.