In a LA Times opinion piece, Tim Rutten wonders whether the bonds Senator Ted Kennedy was able to forge between Catholics and Democrats can survive without him:
One question that will hover over Kennedy’s long and affectionate national wake is whether those bonds will survive the attempts by some vocal bishops to drive a wedge between church members and the Democrats, particularly over abortion. Many of them are pushing the church to deny Communion to pro-choice Catholic elected officials and, after them, will likely turn their wrath on Catholic voters who support pro-choice candidates at the polls.
Some of this internecine ugliness bubbled to the surface after Kennedy’s death this week. Russell Shaw, a contributing editor to the Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor, argued that “when Kennedy defied the church on issues such as abortion and later, gay marriage, he reinforced a corrosive belief among Catholics that they can simply ignore teachings they don’t agree with.” On the other side of the divide was Father James Martin, editor of the influential Jesuit weekly America, who called Kennedy’s “achievements on immigration, fighting poverty and other legislation … a virtual mirror of the church’s social teaching.”
Read the entire piece here.