Interesting Bobby Kennedy Story
It’s well known that Bobby Kennedy was quite devout. I would also say that his Catholicism inspired his politics more so than any other American Catholic public figure in recent memory. But did you know that a very young Bobby was the one who first raised the red flag about Fr. Leonard Feeney, subsequently excommunicated? Apparently, Bobby was one of the young men drawn to Feeney’s Boston circle, and went to hear him speak regularly. But Feeney’s approach to salvation troubled him, and he asked his father if it was true that all non-Catholics were automatically damned. Joseph P. Kennedy said he must have misunderstood, that the priest could not have meant this, and if he was really worried he would put in a call to “Richard” and ask him to talk to his son. Richard, of course, was Richard Cardinal Cushing, friend of the Kennedy family. Bobby was indeed worried, and did go to see Cardinal Cushing. Upon hearing what Bobby reported, Cushing immediately sent some people to Feeney’s talk. Upon verifying what Bobby had told him, he banned Feeney from speaking, the first step towards his excommunication.
I think this is a cute story. It has no point really, and it may well be highly exaggerated, but it is a nice story. The source is Teddy Kennedy’s autobiography.
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Feeney seems to have had a very interesting history:
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10724
Avery Dulles is a gentlemen, a scholar and a great Ignatian, presuming the best of all and sundry.
I have always been saddened by the story of Father Feeney, but in Dulles’ rendering the tragedy becomes so much more pointed. Still, in the work of Dulles and others, Feeney’s legacy seems to have been not entirely negative.
MM,
I would remind you that Fr. Leonard Feeney was reconciled to the church in 1972 without being asked to recant his views.
I don’t think it’s cute. Richard was supposed to be the cardinal not the errand boy.
One has to have a little sympathy for Feeney sticking with a literal interpretation of “Outside the Church there is no salvation.”
According to the Catechism:
Baptism of blood and baptism of desire (which the Catechism discusses next) are interesting concepts, but they don’t come from Jesus or the Gospels.
As an anti-Semite, Feeney (assuming he didn’t change his attitude) would no doubt have been disturbed by the positive developments in Catholic-Jewish relations over the past 30 to 40 years.
Was Bobby really that devout? Didn’t he have his share of extramarital affairs? And did he ever express an opinion on abortion?
Since when does one’s personal sexual morality keep one from having religious faith, “standmickey”? I swear, I think a whole of VoxNova commentators need to go join some Fundamentalist Protestant sect wherein the sole definition of morality IS “sexual behaviour.”
The CATHOLIC view of “sexual morality” is that we’re all sinners.
And did he ever express an opinion on abortion?
His silence on abortion is scandalous, just like the scandalous silence of St. Therese the Little Flower on the same topic.
Come on, Kurt, you know that’s not what I meant. I’m asking if he, like his brother Edward, was pro-choice.
standmickey,
Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Roe v Wade wasn’t decided until 1973. I think what Kurt is saying is that both St. Therese and Bobby Kennedy both lived before legalized abortion was a hot-button issue.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary dates the word “pro-choice” to 1975. So the usage didn’t exist until after RFK was dead.
Teddy Kennedy was still an opponent of abortion for a few years after Bobby died. I believe Bobby supported abortion in the case of rape and the life of the mother. But in any case, the world was not divided into “pro-choice” and “pro-life” while Bobby was alive.
Digby,
I think you’re being a little hard on mickey. One doesn’t need to be a fundamentalist Protestant to find adultery a pretty serious problem.
Even Thomas Merton had an affair, and considered leaving the Trappists to get married. I don’t think we doubt that he was a devout Catholic.
David: it might have been before Roe v. Wade, but abortion was most definitely an issue on the state level throughout the 1960s. And perhaps we now consider Merton to be a devout Catholic, but I would imagine that his affairs are a large part of the reason that he has not been canonized. That kind of public scandal is not something to be minimized. With that said, I don’t know if it was ever “proven” (at least to the extent that it was for his brothers John and Teddy) that Bobby had affairs; all I’ve found are rumors.
…all I’ve found are rumors.
And I am sure we all appreciate you sharing with us the rumors you have heard about someone’s romantic life.
[I]t might have been before Roe v. Wade, but abortion was most definitely an issue on the state level throughout the 1960s.
From the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Web site, Robert F. Kennedy Miscellaneous Information
I don’t remember the point in our history when all politicians had to be classified as either pro-life or pro-choice. However, Bobby Kennedy died before we reached that point. So your question struck me as anachronistic. Also, Teddy Kennedy was staunchly anti-abortion before Roe v. Wade and even a few years following.