{"id":24921,"date":"2009-09-05T11:47:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-05T15:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/09\/ted-kennedy-mercy-or-damnation\/"},"modified":"2009-09-05T11:47:52","modified_gmt":"2009-09-05T15:47:52","slug":"ted-kennedy-mercy-or-damnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/09\/ted-kennedy-mercy-or-damnation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Kennedy: mercy or damnation? What do real Christians think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the week since the obsequies for Edward Kennedy, Senator, not a few self-appointed ministers of God’s justice and mercy have rendered their judgement: the Senator should not have been buried using the rites of the Catholic Church. Interesting.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The sacred Liturgy tells us what we who are baptized believe: we are sinners and<\/span> God’s mercy is in abundance. Sinners need and want mercy from God almighty. I want and need His forgiveness and His tender embrace. I am sure Ted Kennedy wanted the same. Since I was not at his bedside when he was sick, nor did I hear the Senator’s confession and nor was I present when his priest gave him the Sacrament of the Sick, Viaticum and the Apostolic Pardon. Presumably he received these sacred rites before his death. In short, I don’t know the state of his soul. I do know that he wrote to the Holy Father and a kind reply was received.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Cardinal Sean O’Malley has been criticized for being a pastor of souls; he explains as much<\/span><\/a> on his blog this week. The bishop of Madison, WI, Robert Morlino, has a wonderful piece on this subject and I highly recommend<\/span> your reading it. Use it for you lectio. Bishop Morlino’s reflection is found here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Is a lack of mercy to a sinner the demonstration of Christianity’s decay? What virtues are being taught and lived when Christians so violently pontificate that mercy is not possible for the sinner, even such a public sinner? Does Christianity have any real meaning left? If we break mercy from the Christian life then we no longer have a Christian religion that leads one to salvation in Christ. To whom do we witness: Christ or the self?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the week since the obsequies for Edward Kennedy, Senator, not a few self-appointed ministers of God’s justice and mercy have rendered their judgement: the Senator should not have been buried using the rites of the Catholic Church. Interesting. The sacred Liturgy tells us what we who are baptized believe: we are sinners and God’s … Continue reading Ted Kennedy: mercy or damnation? What do real Christians think?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1749,2178,2179,1713,2008],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}