Word: church
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...faith was instilled by Rose Kennedy, the family matriarch, who for much of her life attended Mass twice daily at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis Port, where her daughter Eunice was buried last week. Rose's children and grandchildren complained of being coerced to accompany her. But the little church on the Cape provided comfort in the times of tragedy that seemed to visit the Kennedys like the seasons. After their eldest brother Joe died during World War II, John and his sister Kathleen - both of whom sometimes struggled with their faith - would go to St. Francis Xavier together...
Teddy's relationship with the church was uneven. He felt more disconnected from his faith after losing four of his older siblings to early and violent deaths, surviving a plane crash that killed one of his aides, and experiencing the tragedy and scandal of Chappaquiddick. But he continued to pray, even when he wasn't sure it would do much good. In the early 1980s, after the failure of both his marriage and his challenge to take the Democratic presidential nomination from Jimmy Carter, Kennedy would often walk across the street from the Senate office buildings to St. Joseph...
Kennedy also relied on his faith as he watched his two eldest children struggle with cancer. While his daughter Kara was undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital in the Mission Hill section of Boston, Kennedy used to stop for prayer at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, the church where his funeral will take place on Saturday, Aug. 29. The amount of time her youngest child spent in churches would have surprised and gratified Rose Kennedy. In 1995, Teddy spoke of her legacy, "She sustained us in the saddest times by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift...
Indeed, abortion was the main topic for which Kennedy received criticism from church leaders. He had begun his political career opposed to abortion - in a 1971 letter, Kennedy wrote, "Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized." But like many other Democratic politicians, he became a supporter of abortion rights by the 1980s. By the end of his career he was regularly awarded a 100% positive rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America for his abortion-related votes, a record that put him at odds with Church leadership...
...ultimately, says Casey, Senator Kennedy's relationship with Catholicism is one familiar to many American Catholics. "He went through a period of alienation from the Church," says Casey. "But he came back on his own terms. He made a form of peace with the Church. That should give hope to lots of Catholic Democrats that they might find a way to stay in the fold...