[Peace-discuss] Catholics oppose public Catholic funeral for arch-heretic Kennedy.

[E. Wayne Johnson]

"Heresy" derives from a greek root / (h)aireomai/ which means "to choose",
/hairesos/ meaning a sect so formed, not always with negative connotation.

Aquinas defines heresy as "a species of infidelity in men who, having 
professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas".

Webster defines an ArchHeretic as a "chief heretic".
(Stephen Kaufman immediately comes to mind,
but one should then be boggled by Webster's prescience.)

Arch-heretics and the less virulent vanilla heretics likely get their 
attention from
presenting a real threat of competition.  Embracing Kennedy was likely
judged to be enlarging whereas dogged adherence to dogmata was likely to
be diminishing.




On 8/29/2009 3:44 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> It's worth noting that, for good or ill, this was not the official 
> position of
> the Roman church in the US, nor of the Archdiocese of Boston, where 
> Kennedy's
> funeral mass was held this morning in a basilica (a principal church) 
> that is
> situated in midst of an urban housing project.
>
> The practice of denying religious services to the funeral of a public 
> sinner is
> of course ancient.  (It's discussed e.g. in Hamlet).  The political 
> actions of
> Ted Kennedy -- what he did and what he failed to do as a public 
> official -- as
> set out here in an article by Alex Cockburn would lead me to think 
> that an
> objection to Christian burial for him would not be out of place, but 
> that was
> not as I said the view of the officials of the church.
>
> The organization referred to here is of course speaking for itself and 
> its
> principal member (who appears to have a student at Notre Dame when I 
> taught
> there). "Arch-heretic" seems a bit strong.  Heresy means literally 
> one-sidedness
> in theological opinion, and I doubt Ted Kennedy had many theological 
> opinions;
> surely not enough to be "arch."  --CGE
>
>
> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> A Catholic pro-life leader has some scathing words concerning Senator 
>> Ted Kennedy's Catholic funeral.
>>
>> Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International 
>> <http://www.hli.org/>, released this statement concerning Senator 
>> Kennedy. "We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of 
>> heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have 
>> to praise him, let alone extol him with the full honors of a public 
>> Catholic funeral and all the
>>  adulation that attends such an event."
>>
>> He adds that while Senator Kennedy called himself Catholic, like 
>> Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, they 
>> are actually wolves
>>  in sheep's clothing.
>>
>> "They do not hold to the teaching of the church. They, in fact, take 
>> every opportunity seemingly to contradict the teaching of our 
>> church," Euteneuer says. "So in the case of Senator Edward Kennedy, 
>> he was not only against his church's teaching on the issue of 
>> abortion, but the same with embryonic stem cell research, the same 
>> with gay marriage and various other issues which set him in diametric 
>> opposition to his church's very well-defined and clearly articulated 
>> teaching."
>>
>> Euteneuer says he is speaking out now to remind everyone that 
>> Catholics cannot honor a person with a full and public Catholic 
>> funeral when, like Senator Kennedy, he really was not.
>
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