There was a poignant footnote to President Obama's historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the Pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody — not even the President — knew the contents of the sealed missive. Obama asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.
The letter, most likely already resealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy's death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communiqué in response to Kennedy's death. The niceties of international diplomacy do not require the Pope to issue a statement on the death of a non-head of state. But observers point out that the Papal Nuncio to the U.S. delivered a letter to family of the Senator's sister, Eunice, the day after she died earlier in August, saying the Pope was praying for her, her children and her husband.
One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan's rapport with the Catholic Church: "Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium." (Magisterium is the formal term for the authority of Church teaching.)
(See a Kennedy family photo album.)
During Benedict's 2008 trip to the U.S., there was some heated debate — with conflicting photographs and eyewitness accounts — about whether Kennedy took Holy Communion at the papal Mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington, with conservatives insisting that the Pope says the rite should be denied to prochoice politicians. With this in mind, Church observers are keen to see if Boston's Archbishop Cardinal Sean O'Malley will preside over Kennedy's funeral. Some conservatives already see the fact that the rites are not being held in a cathedral (but rather at the Senator's favorite church) as significant.
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1919064,00.html?iid=tsmoduleThis will be a test to see if the Vatican cares about all the other Christ teachings or if it has become just another anti focusing on abortion only.
I think if the Pope remains silent it will discredit the Church for decades. The Kennedy's rose to political positions when the Church was practically considered second class citizens by American Protestants. The Evangelicals STILL spread vicious lies about them. Let's see if the Vatican will stand up for it's own or kneel down to the vicious evangelical heretics who have turned Jesus into a capitalist pig who only cares about sexual sins.
If I had to bet I'd say he stays slient. The corruption by the religious right is complete.
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