Kennedy Catholicism; still disobedient

I marvel at how this Kennedy descendent continues to get such press simply because she is Catholic but prefers her partisan political views over the teachings of Holy Mother Church.

Of course, I'm giving her play here on my own blog. As we journey through Lent together, I still find this worthy to publish. She couches the argument skillfully to discount the truth taught by the church and safeguarding one particular political parties agenda.

She does not care for balance. I for one say yes, cry from the dome of Catholicism for the poor and needy, the immigrant, and yes, for health care that truly promotes the common good and the life, liberty and dignity of all human beings; from conception to natural death.

Ted, Robert and even John may be gone now. Patrick is even retreating. But good ole' Kathleen lives on by bashing the church she claims to love. Love and a church made and shaped in her own image.

And a little warning to those who blow hard politically from the right; know the fullness of truth as taught by Holy Mother Church too. Not all who waive their religious criticism for all to see come from the left!

Religion and politics: Devout Catholic Kathleen Kennedy Townsend still pushing church buttons
By Matthias Gafni
Contra Costa Times

It didn't take long for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to show Saint Mary's College students the renegade Catholic streak that got her blacklisted from religious speaking engagements and condemned by her parish priest.

"I think if you're in love, you should get married," the eldest daughter of Robert Kennedy said Tuesday when asked for her thoughts on same-sex marriage. "I think that's what Christ preached — love. "... So, Hallelujah for the lucky people in California that got the chance to be married."

The 58-year-old former lieutenant governor of Maryland rarely pulls a punch, particularly when discussing her celebrated Irish Catholic roots and frustration with her church's politics. She spoke to a packed Soda Center audience on the Moraga campus Tuesday night and in an earlier Times interview.

"The churches have failed America because they've narrowed faith to three issues: abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research," Townsend said. "And I thought that my faith tradition was we should care about the least among us. We should care about the poor, health care, immigration."

Townsend is spending the week at Saint Mary's College as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She wrote the 2007 book "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way."

"Every progressive movement in the United States has had a religious underpinning and so it's critically important for
those of the progressive ilk to find their religious roots," she said.

However, she has grown increasingly frustrated with Catholicism's political pillars. She wrote in the Nov. 6 issue of Newsweek about her disappointment with Catholic bishops speaking out against health care reform based on the abortion issue.

"Why are we hearing more about abortion and less about immigrants?" she asked. "That's always the criticism that they seem to be more interested in the unborn rather than the people actually here among us.

"I think that the bishops should be galvanizing support for the health care bill. We have 40 million Americans without health care, we should cover them and that's what the bishops should be fighting for and working for and speaking about. That is in St. Matthew's gospel: caring for the least among us."

The church has struck back, denying her speaking engagements at Catholic schools in her home diocese of Baltimore.

"But that happened a while ago and I just realized they are afraid of women," she said with a chuckle. "And it took them 300 years to realize that Galileo was right."

Although she pushes her church for change, Townsend speaks fondly of her devout upbringing. The oldest of 11 siblings, she grew up in a house with Holy Water fonts and paintings of saints in each room, and a grandmother who prayed for parking spaces through St. Anthony.

"This church has very important teachings and has been a great source of comfort and solace to me and to my family in times of sorrow, and there have been many," she said.

"And I'm not going to let them kick me out. I'm an American and I know that institutions don't always work, but I believe in institutions and I want to make this one work."