Sen. Ted Kennedy's Catholicism: First Take

I lost all respect for Kennedy when he got his marriage annulled to his first wife, the mother of his 5 children. An Anullment means there never was a marriage; it wasn't consumated, etc. Just goes to show you money talks. I read Jackie Kennedy's autobiography explaining that all the Kennedy men were womanizers and none ever faithful to their wives - starting with Joe Kennedy. Yes, they all went to the Catholic church but they never lived their faith. I am really sick of hearing about the Kennedys! It all about the $$$, the glamour of the Kennedy clan - as if we had our own royals. The sooner this clan dies out, the better.

I certainly don't agree that we need to take a look at his faith and its role in his life and career. That is totally hunkus in the bunkus.

Karen Kosmoski of AZ 4:19PM October 14, 2009

In the USA, it's distressing to find the Catholic Church is telling Catholics how to vote. This means: if a precinct has a majority of Catholics, votes of all others in that precinct are annulled. Dead to their duties as citizens, such Catholic rubber-stamp voters are like those whose names were taken from gravestones in rigged elections managed by corrupt public officials. This subverts our election system. It's dictatorial, unpatriotic & unAmerican. Recently, two women public officials were denied communion because they're Prochoice. Other faiths joined Moral Majority, Inc. & they also vote in a Prolifer block. They always vote to force women to produce ongoing generations of believers who will pay the huge 10% tithe. It's $160 K if a person pays 40 years on an annual income of $40,000. If a conception is aborted, a church loses $160,000. I ask Prolifer taxpayers..do you mind paying to supply welfare. ADC., food stamps & subsidized housing to unwed poor moms & to poor big families who refuse to use birth control and abortion for fear of going to Hell?

auradawn veirs of CA 9:41PM October 08, 2009

Dear Catholics:

When it is time to promote/support/vote, we have a moral and ethical responsibility as Catholics to promote/support/vote against any evil. “VOTING/SUPPORTING/PROMOTING IS A MORAL ACT.” It involves duties and responsibilities. Our duty is to promote/support/vote in keeping with a conscience properly formed by fundamental moral principles (from "Moral Principles for Catholic Voters" issued by Kansas Catholic bishops). It is important to remember, however, that it is possible for our conscience to be certain and at the same time incorrect about what is good and evil. For this reason, we have an equally serious duty to properly form or teach our conscience so that it can correctly judge what is good and evil. We are obliged to seek the truth and then to abide by it (from "Moral Principles for Catholic Voters").

There are specific actions that are intrinsically evil by their very nature or their essence and must never be promoted/supported/voted into law because they directly violate the very life and dignity of the human person. At the top of this list are the five intrinsic moral evils: “Abortion, Euthanasia, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning, and Homosexual Marriage.”

Making Your Decision

1.) For each office, first determine how each candidate/politician with a real—even if unlikely—chance of winning stands on each issue that will come before him and involves nonnegotiable moral principles.

2.) Rank the candidates/politicians according to how well their positions align with these nonnegotiable moral principles.

3.) Even if these candidates/politicians support the poor and health care, give preference to candidates/politicians who do not endorse and support/promote/vote for the five intrinsic moral evils.

4.) Where every candidate/politician endorses positions contrary to non-negotiable principles, choose the candidate/politician likely to do the least harm.

When there is no choice of a candidate(s)/politician(s) that avoids supporting/promoting/voting intrinsically evil actions which include “Abortion, Euthanasia, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning, and Homosexual Marriage,” we, as Catholics, are morally obligated not to support/promote/vote that candidate/politician. “Concerning choices that are intrinsically evil, Catholics may not support/promote/vote or even remain indifferent to them” ("Moral Principles for Catholic Voters”).

As we look at the political eligious landscape of our society today, President Obama, V.P. Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns, and our faithful who promote/support/vote or even remain indifferent to these five intrinsic moral evils are wrong and are against GOD. We must voice our disdain for any candidates/politicians, shepherds of our church, and even our faithful who believe in promoting these evils. These are non-negotiable principles, and as Catholics, we may not promote/support/vote or even remain indifferent to them.

In this same spirit, it is a mockery of God and against our teachings to have a public Mass for candidates/politicians who promote/support/vote any or all of the five intrinsic moral evils. Where are our shepherds and/or our faithful and our disdain for the mockery of God and the Church that He built?

God, please help us to remain faithfully to your word/truth. Amen.

BFG of CA 1:26PM September 10, 2009

A man who; was a serial skirt chaser (ran in the family), committed, at the least, manslaughter (his wife loses their baby during the aftermath), an alcoholic himself, he abandons his depressed, alcoholic wife, promoter of the killing of the unborn, and often used his prestige to escape the consequences of his behavior.

Kennedy a Catholic? Perhaps by birth - not by deed or character.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:04PM September 09, 2009