Edward M. Kennedy is to be buried in Arlington this evening, an American hero by some standards, after a Catholic funeral in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston this morning, at which Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, performed the simple funeral rites at the end of the Mass, and President Obama delivered a eulogy following those of the late senator's two sons.
In the news today is another prominent Catholic, though a recent convert, Tony Blair, who like Senator Kennedy, opposes Church teachings on abortion, contraception, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.
Can someone name a prominent Catholic politician anywhere who is an orthodox practising Catholic?
Tony Blair at Rimini Meeting:
Society needs to give space to faith
RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair, believes that "to be harmonious, a society must leave room for faith."
Addressing some 15,000 people Thursday at the "Meeting for Friendship Between Peoples," organized by the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation in the Italian coastal city of Rimini, Blair revealed aspects of his conversion to Catholicism.
In fact, he said, when he was "preparing to enter the Catholic Church, he had the feeling he was returning home."
His conversion, he added, was made easier by his wife; moreover, he realized that the Catholic Church was his home not "only because of its doctrine and magisterium, but because of its universal nature."
In the course of his address, the founder of the Faith Foundation quoted Benedict XVI's recent encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" several times, and said that it was "worthwhile reading and re-reading it; it is a counter-attack to relativism."
He also highlighted the encyclical's message, which affirms that without God man would not know where to go, considering that it is of vital importance for a globalized world such as today's.
If a globalized world is not to be dominated by power, it must have a counter-weight that seeks the common good, he stressed.
In this connection, Blair explained that the universal Church, which is a model of a global institution, must come into play to address the problems posed by globalization.
In regard to the challenges of a multi-cultural society, Blair acknowledged that globalization makes us meet more people, but it is necessary to keep our characteristic identity.
It is necessary "to respect the Judeo-Christian roots of the countries of Europe. We must also call for respect for the identity of our countries, which has been formed in the course of millennia."
According to Blair, religion is often seen "as a source of conflict and we must demonstrate that faith is committed to building justice."
"In this way, we will show the real face of God, who is love and compassion," he added.
"Faith is not a form of superstition, but salvation for man. It is not a fleeing from life. Faith and reason are allied, never in opposition. Faith and reason support one another, reinforce each other, do not compete. That is why the voice of the Church is listened to, the voice of faith must always be listened to. That is our mission for the 21st century."
He also referred to the question of the process of peace in the Middle East and stated that "Israel must have its security guaranteed and Palestinians must be able to have an independent State."
Blair ended his addresses affirming "it would be a great sign of reconciliation and hope if the Holy Land were a place for reconciliation and peace."
Blair gets star reception
Posted by Edward Pentin
Friday, August 28, 2009 10:05 AM
Tony Blair was given star treatment at Communion and Liberation’s 30th annual Rimini Meeting yesterday evening in Italy.
Billed by the organizers as “The Day of Blair,” the speech took place in a packed auditorium of mostly Communion and Liberation members who gave the former British Prime Minister and recent convert to the Church a rousing welcome.
Several thousand people filled the huge hall and stood up to greet Blair as he walked from the back of the hall to the front amid wild cheers. His press spokesman said it was the largest single gathering the former British politician had ever addressed.
Blair made many commendable points in his speech. He began by explaining how he had just come back from China and was impressed by how, despite continued restrictions on the Church, the country is drawing heavily on its culture and civilization and beginning to realize the limitations of “seeing a society simply as a technocratic or legal bargain between individual and state.”
He spoke of his “Third Way” approach to politics, the importance of rolling back the state to ensure individual opportunity, and the vital role of a social group apart from government and business — the voluntary sector — “to do those things that neither the market nor the state can do.”
Blair praised Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical,
Caritas in Veritate, for how it “enlarges and enriches” the idea of community, and puts “God’s Truth at the center of it.” He stressed faith and reason are in alliance, not in opposition, and he lauded the role of faith communities in bringing about peace.
“Too often religion is seen as a source of conflict and division. Show instead how faith is standing up for justice, for solidarity across peoples and nations, and how it’s doing so with those of other faiths and we show the true face of God’s love, mercy and compassion,” he said to loud applause.
Asked at the end of his speech why he decided to join the Church, he said: “Frankly this began with my wife. I began to go to Mass and we worshipped together. We could have worshipped in a Catholic or Anglican Church — guess who won? But as time went on and I’d been going to Mass for a long time, it’s been difficult to put into words, but I felt there was something about the Church — not just the doctrine and teaching of the Church — but the universal nature of the Church.”
The crowd frequently applauded and he received two standing ovations. “It was one of the greatest meetings of the last thirty years,” said the event’s host, Giorgio Vittadini, one that “will go down in the Meeting’s history.”
An Italian volunteer told me the next day: “Usually I don’t expect a politician to be humble, but he was — he gave a great speech, and funny too.”
But his words, and his reply to questions afterwards, never referred to any life issue, most significantly legalized abortion, embryonic destructive research, and same-sex unions — all policies he supported as prime minister.
It’s also not clear whether he accepts the Church’s teaching on these issues as he has yet to publicly repudiate his previous support for them.
The point was put into characteristic clarity by Professor Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, also a speaker at the Rimini Meeting this year, but who did not attend Mr. Blair’s speech.
“Let me speak plainly,” George told the
Register afterwards.
“The policies enacted by Tony Blair pertaining to the right of every human being to the protections of the law were reprehensible. It is shocking that Tony Blair did not renounce these policies and express regret for them before being publicly received into the Catholic Church.
"It is even more shocking that he has, since being received into the Church, given every indication that he continues to support policies that result in the destruction of innocent human beings in the embryonic and fetal stages of development in vast numbers.”
George added, “I’m a bit surprised to hear that Tony Blair received such a warm reception at this meeting. I can only infer that most of the people in the audience must have supposed that he had renounced these policies when he, in his ceremony of being received into full communion with the Catholic Church, stated that he believed that he everything that the Catholic Church taught and believed.”
A member of Communion and Liberation, a movement well known for its loyalty to the Church and its faithfulness to Church teaching, said Blair was given such a hearty welcome because its members wanted to congratulate him on his decision to join the Church.
Blair was received into the Church in 2007.
What is the Rimini Meeting?
From the Meeting website
With an average attendance of over 700,000, the Rimini Meeting – held annually since 1980 and lasting one week in the second half of August – is the world’s biggest summer festival of encounters, exhibitions, music and spectacle.
The event is unique of its kind: an association that for 29 years has sought to create points of contact between experiences and people of different faiths and cultures who share a positive desire for knowledge and reciprocal enhancement.
In recent years this human and cultural position, with is roots in the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, has proved capable of an openness which has attracted testimonies from the most significant personalities on the world stage.
Those who have appeared at the Meeting range from the Holy Father John Paul II to Chaim Potok, the then Cardinal Ratzinger, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Carlo Rubbia, George Smoot, Ennio Morricone, José Carreras, Jean Guitton, Luigi Giussani, Simone Veil, Martha Graham, David Rosen, François Michelin, and many other politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, philosophers and artists.
Quite apart from its sheer diversity, the elementary experience of humanity reveals itself as the common ground for meeting and dialogue. Not doubts about identity but the certainty of having met something true spurs people to make discoveries and recognize all that is beautiful and good, in keeping with. St. Paul’s counsel: “Test everything; hold to what is good.”
Apart from a small core of 14 people who work full time on its organization, the Rimini Meeting is organized, prepared, managed and then dismantled by the impassioned and generous efforts of volunteers, who number over 3,000 each year.
Most of them are young, they come from all over Italy and many other countries around the world. It is above all because of their contribution that the Rimini Meeting has become a major event, as the figures show: 400 exhibitions, 3000 encounters, 5000 guests and 850 journalists accredited to the last edition.
The Meeting is a great social event, a festive happening, a place where we celebrate the earthly glory of God as creator and friend. But it is above all a gratuitous gesture: thousands of people, of all ages and social backgrounds, give of their time and energy to create the event. The cultural discourse that unfolds there is just one of the fruits.
What Cardinal Ratzinger said about C&L
In September, 2004, the future Pope Benedict XVI, described his own meeting with Monsignor Luigi Giussani [founder of C&L] in the early 1970s, and found out all about Communion and Liberation:
It was an interesting discovery for me; I had never heard of this group (Communion and Liberation) until that moment, and I saw young people full of fervor for the faith, quite far from a sclerotic and weary Catholicism, and without the mentality of "protest" - which considers all that was there before the Council as totally superseded -but a faith that was fresh, profound, open and with the joy of being believers, of having found Jesus Christ and His Church. There, I understood that there was a new start, there was really a renewed faith that opens doors to the future.
Cardinal Ratzinger delivered the eulogy at Don Giussani's funeral in Milan in February 2005, an event many considered to have boosted his 'stock' as a probable successor to John Paul II.
BTW, Cardinal Ratzinger's address to the 1990 Rimini Meeting deserves to be translated - it was entitled 'An ever-reforming company' [based on a Latin phrase], referring to the Church. I have not so far seen an English translation online.
P.S. I have since posted the translation in a new thread called TEXTS BY JOSEPH RATZINGER.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/09/2009 18:45]