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Catholic Pro-Life Leader Laments Confusion Caused by Kennedy Funeral

By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer   In an op-ed appearing in various publications, the president of the largest grassroots pro-life organization in the country says the funeral for Senator Edward M. Kennedy was beyond anything she had seen in her more than 65 years of life. “Each of us who believe in the justice and mercy of God are called, as an act of charity, to pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased,” writes Judie Brown, president of the American Life League (ALL). “However, there are some rubrics of decorum that should - at the very least - have been respected over this past weekend. I speak, of course, of the grandiose funeral ceremonies, particularly the Catholic funeral Mass, for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The entire travesty, from the television cameras to the spectacle itself, goes beyond anything I have witnessed in my more than 65 years of life.” Not only did the appearance of President Barack Obama at the University of Notre Dame cause a scandal, she writes, but “the very idea that he offered a eulogy in a basilica, while the real presence of Christ was in the tabernacle, is perhaps the most dastardly thing I have ever seen.” The fact that one of the nation’s most avid promoters of abortion on demand stood in a Catholic basilica praising a fellow pro-abort in glowing terms, “is such an insult to Christ that words simply cannot express my sorrow.” She was even more saddened by the presence of Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston who “looked on as though insulting Christ Himself were an everyday occurrence.” While she fully expects to be criticized for these statements, Brown says she understands the laws of the Church as they relate to funerals and public figures who persist in supporting grave evils, and the proper funeral for those who do not repent. “Not a single one of us knows the state of Senator Kennedy's soul at his death, but his public record is sufficient to clarify for one and all the myriad reasons why such a Mass, presided over by a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was a total, absolute insult to Christ the Lord.” Brown calls the Senator’s funeral mass “a perfect example of what many describe as bowing to human respect rather than abiding by the laws of God and serving Him first without counting the cost.” She goes on to point out a warning by St. John Vianney, patron of the present Year for Priests, who once said: “Do you know what the devil's first temptation is to the person who wants to serve God with dedication? It is human respect!"  “Senator Kennedy devoted a great deal of his public life to assuring the deaths of millions of human beings - members of the human family who happened to reside in their mother's wombs. He repeatedly defied Catholic teaching, arrogantly receiving the body and blood of Christ when he knew as certainly as he knew his name that aborting a child is an act of murder and a grievous crime defined in precisely those terms by the Catholic Church. And the hierarchy looked on.” As a result, prelates of the Church created much more than a scandal. “Now millions of Americans are totally confused about what it means to be Catholic,” she said. “Spitting on Christ Himself at His crucifixion could not have been any more disdainful than what we witnessed Saturday.” Brown ends her op-ed with a prayer “that the suffering this debacle has caused faithful Catholics turns into a renewal of commitment to Christ, His Church, His real presence in the Eucharist and His little ones.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

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