RFK’s Daughter Probes Catholicism

As the seventh of 11 children, Kerry Kennedy’s Catholic upbringing was a huge influence on her formation. She was afterall the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. The family prayed the Rosary together, attended daily Mass after the assassination of their father. In fact, the 49-year old Kennedy remains a practicing Catholic, teaching religion in her home parish in New York.
However, as she grew older, she began to wrestle with some of the Church’s stances on hot button social issues of the day. The result of that struggle is her new book, “Being Catholic Now”. The book attempts to demonstrate the profound effect that Catholicism plays in those who grew up Catholic as well as the contradictions and tensions of an adult Catholic who is at times at odds with the institutional church. Kerry Kennedy interviews a wide variety of Catholics from Bill O’Reilly to Martin Sheen. Interestingly, Kennedy does not shy away from the priest sex abuse scandal. She even interviews Justice Anne M. Burke who was interim chair of the National Review Board for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for two years. Burke is sharp in her criticism of two leading cardinals-Francis George and Edward Egan. In the interview with Kennedy, Burke states, “started having problems with individual cardinals and bishops who thought we were too aggressive,” and that “bishops got away with concealing crime,” and “just when you think these bishops are getting it, they turn around and do something that in any other enterprise would result in their own dismissal.”
Burke is highly critical of Chicago’s cardinal Francis George. She says he lied to her about an abusive priest, “the cardinal wasn’t honest with me. Perhaps he was not honest with himself.”
She also doesn’t let Egan off lightly, “Cardinal Edward Egan was offended by our insistence for independence,” she says. “I also think he was intimidated by the thoughts of fifty former FBI agents doing our questioning. His animosity reached an absurd level when he publicly uninvited us from attending the Cardinal’s Annual Gala in New York [an Order of Malta dinner].”
Both cardinals have already rejected Burke’s critiques. However, it’s hard to dispute the veracity and integrity of Justice Burke as well as former Governor Frank Keating, especially when the cardinals haven’t had the best track record in the truth telling department.