Anchor Heidi Collins introduced Bash’s report, which shared a similar theme to AP’s report from Friday morning: “Senator Kennedy had spoken of his complicated relationship with the Catholic Church.” The CNN correspondent then highlighted how “Ted Kennedy’s family chose this church for his funeral Mass because he prayed here every day when daughter Kara was diagnosed with cancer, an example of his quiet, but deep Catholic faith.”
Bash featured several clips from her interview of Father Gerry Creedon of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, Virginia. She first asked Father Creedon, who, in her words, “counseled Kennedy for more than 30 years,” about the senator’s faith: “Did you consider him a religious man?”
After noting the long relationship the Catholic priest had with the politician (displaying an old picture of the two as well), the CNN correspondent cited his Mass attendance and his apparent love of the Gospel: “Kennedy often said it was his mother’s Catholic faith that guided his famous family’s political agenda. He used scripture in his push to end poverty and discrimination.” Bash then played the clip of the senator noting his favorite part of the Bible, which was “Matthew 25 through 35.” The Gospel of Matthew actually only has 28 chapters. He likely meant Matthew, chapter 25, verse 35, as that was verse that he subsequently quoted.
Despite her playing up of the Democrat’s Catholicism, the correspondent added after the sound bite that “Kennedy’s support for abortion rights flew in the face of [the] Catholic credo....Senator Kennedy once told me that he had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church because he was for abortion rights.”
Near the end of the report, Bash continued with her earlier theme of how the long-term senator practiced his faith: “Father Creedon says Kennedy often came to him for spiritual guidance during well-publicized low points in his life, and in the last year, too ill to go to church, Kennedy asked him to come give Communion at home, and never asked others to pray for him.”The full transcript of Bash’s report, which aired just after the bottom of the 9 am Eastern hour of Friday’s Newsroom:
HEIDI COLLINS: Senator Kennedy had spoken of his complicated relationship with the Catholic Church. CNN’s Dana Bash now with more on his faith.
DANA BASH (voice-over): Ted Kennedy’s family chose this church for his funeral Mass because he prayed here every day when daughter Kara was diagnosed with cancer, an example of his quiet, but deep Catholic faith.
BASH (on-camera): Did you consider him a religious man?
REV. GERRY CREEDON, ST. CHARLES BORROMEO CATHOLIC CHURCH: Very much so.
BASH (voice-over): Father Gerry Creedon counseled Kennedy for more than 30 years.
CREEDON: This is an old picture- probably goes back to 1980.
BASH: He says Kennedy not only attended Sunday Mass, but sought him out to discuss the tenets of Catholicism.
CREEDON: Most people sat there either disagreeing with me or sleeping. I’d walk out of church and Ted Kennedy would come up to me and continue the theme I was preaching on.
BASH: Kennedy often said it was his mother’s Catholic faith that guided his famous family’s political agenda. He used scripture in his push to end poverty and discrimination.
SENATOR TED KENNEDY: My favorite parts of the Bible are always Matthew 25 through 35 [sic]- I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and thirsty, you gave me to drink.
BASH: But Kennedy’s support for abortion rights flew in the face of [the] Catholic credo.
KENNEDY (from May 8, 1996 Larry King Live): Roe v. Wade made a very clear declaration. That is the law of the land- I support that the law of the land.
BASH (on-camera): Senator Kennedy once told me that he had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church because he was for abortion rights.
CREEDON: I think he would wish that he could find- have found a middle ground, a common ground with our Church institution. I prayed for him at Mass yesterday morning, and I got an e-mail saying you scandalized the faithful by praying for Ted Kennedy.
BASH (voice-over): Father Creedon says Kennedy often came to him for spiritual guidance during well-publicized low points in his life, and in the last year, too ill to go to church, Kennedy asked him to come give Communion at home, and never asked others to pray for him.
CREEDON: When it came to the prayers of the faithful, as the time normally people make petitions, and often times his wife would make a petition for his health and so forth, he never made a petition, but he always had two or three prayers of thanksgiving, gratitude.
BASH (on-camera): One of the last letters Ted Kennedy wrote in July was a letter to the pope, which he asked President Obama to personally deliver when he visited the Vatican last month. Neither the senators’ aides nor the Vatican would disclose what the letter said. Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Ted, er, on the Bible
August 28, 2009 - 16:50 ET by Tim GrahamTeddy's going to be surrounded by supporters holding up signs saying "Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries" and then try to play Catholic Bible Scholar? That obviously didn't work.
This is like Howard Dean claiming the Book of Job was his favorite book in the New Testament. They really shouldn't try to go there.
...
August 29, 2009 - 02:03 ET by EugeniaSomehow liberal Catholics always miss John 12: 3-8:
"Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed
the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled
with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of
his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, "Why was this
ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a
thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my
burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always
have me."
Yet Kennedy was like a deer in headlights at the plight of God's innocent preborn babies.
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."
-- GK Chesterton
Spirit filled
August 28, 2009 - 17:36 ET by seven35 For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
He did drink fer sure.
Holy spirit and his spirits were whiskey. Not the same.
Over 40 million human beings lost their lives in part because of
August 28, 2009 - 17:50 ET by R D Helmthe actions of Ted Kennedy, and one died as a direct result of his actions.
Deep Catholic faith? I don't think so.
-Dave
Even when the government tries to kiss you, it is just a prelude to a good screwing. -Neal Boortz
His soul
August 28, 2009 - 22:02 ET by KC MulvilleI don't think anyone should comment on how "good" a Catholic he was, personally. That's none of my business, or anyone else's. That's between him, his pastor, and his God.
However, we have every right to critique and evaluate the truth of what he believed, especially since he was a politician who shaped and enacted public policy issues. And we can make distinctions between his support of policies for the poor and disabled, versus policies that directly opposed key teaching of Catholic morality. You can't say that his support for the handicapped was motivated by Catholic teaching, but then watch him flagrantly disown that teaching when it came to other issues.
In the end, so much of this discussion is disentangling ourselves from the rhetoric. When the Catholic church is used simply as a prop, to be waved like a flag when it will impress gullible voters, I can't accept that.
August 29, 2009 - 09:03 ET by jessieHI guess it's ok to kill another person if you are catholic.
I don't know
August 29, 2009 - 09:31 ET by Ole_Sargeabout Edward Kennedy's last year of life knowing what he was going to die from. With GBM (GlioBlastoma Multiforme) there usually is a bit of time to get your affairs in order, and make you peace with those around you and with your G-d. I was beside my husband, age 30 when he died of the exact same disease, but we didn't have all at our finger tips as "Teddy" did.
As a practicing Catholic, I find all this focus by the Atheist MSM a rather sick little joke, "o the piety..." Teddy was NOT a good Catholic, looking back over his life, he was fully immersed in the muck of slime, corruption, back-stabbing double deals, and every vice known to mankind. The myth kept him in power as much as the political corruption.
Maybe there was a "death-bed" conversion and repentence, but there was no public pentence for his sins. He was not a repentant sinner as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV was, appearing in the grab of a pentant outside the doors of Pope Gregory VII in the winter of 1075, seeking the Church's forgiveness.
Maybe that was the letter Barry Dunham-Obama took to Rome, and the silience from the Holy Father in return. Who knows
I freely admit, I do not know, I only pray that our Lord be merciful, his soul find rest and that I try not to judge, it is hard, it is very hard. When public officials DO NOT live in accordance with what is professed on their tongues as their faith in public, then they are publicly hypocrites. Their (public) life is a scandal. Edward Kennedy is not alone in this. It is not a failing of just Catholics. Harry Reid is a poor example of a member of the LDS.
May you find rest Edward Kennedy, and may Mary Jo be a better witness than me.
devout yeh, at something, but not God, Jesus and the Bible imo
August 29, 2009 - 11:39 ET by Patriot IIWhat about murder? what about sacrificing your children to moloch? what about homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God...this guy should have read the Bible.....he might have learned something, lets don't forget Mary Jo Kopechne and his up stream against the current, olympic swim and his reporting of the accident the NEXT day!! Don't give me devout!!!
It's simple
August 29, 2009 - 13:02 ET by moderncommentaries83To the folks at CNN, and liberals in general, the Kennedys are perfect examples of "devout" Catholics because they're willing to pick-and-choose what teachings they'll follow.
When everything's relative (especially morals), those most easily able to go a la carte are the most devout out there.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Bingo
August 29, 2009 - 14:07 ET by ThermistoclesHypocrisy is a cardinal virtue of the liberal left.
Were he a professed athiest, I expect they would still label him a devout Catholic.