Chicago Catholic News: Church publisher offers mea culpa on Kennedy prayer

Church publisher offers mea culpa on Kennedy prayer

(UPDATED: 9/10/09) A religious publisher affiliated with the Archdiocese of Chicago has apologized for authoring a prayer that lavished praise on the late Ted Kennedy, whose views on abortion collided with those of the Roman Catholic Church.

The publisher -- Chicago-based Liturgy Training Publications -- also ended up re-writing the prayer, which was made available for use at Sunday mass following the Catholic senator's Aug. 25 death.

The original wording: "For those who have given their lives to service to their country, promoting values of peace, justice, equality, and liberty; especially, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, that he may find his eternal reward in the arms of God . . . . We pray."

A number of Catholics howled about that language because Kennedy was a strong supporter of abortion rights, and the Catholic Church considers abortion murder of the unborn.

An 87-year-old priest in California, the Rev. John Malloy, runs an anti-abortion blog and was among the first to complain.

He also was among those to receive an e-mailed apology from the director of the publishing house, John A. Thomas.

"I'm writing, in response to your message, to apologize for the extremely poor use of words reflected in the recent posting of our Prayer of the Faithful resource as it relates to the petition regarding Senator Edward Kennedy," Thomas wrote. "Upon reflection, the editors who adapted and wrote the prayer recognize their poor judgment."

In the note, Thomas provided a detailed explanation as to what happened:

"As a source text [the editors] drew from 'Prayers on the Inauguration of a Public Official' found in the Book of Blessings. This was a poor choice as a source text. The source prayer, as originally intended, intentionally reflects a future hope; it is not intended as a reflection on the quality of the life of a person or persons. This was not considered enough when adapted. As adapted for the Prayer of the Faithful, the text inappropriately presents a sense of support for the positions and actions taken by the late Senator by those who wrote it or pray it. I know it was not the intention of the editors to support the Senator's positions, but upon reading the petition, as it was originally written, support can be inferred. I apologize for our failure in judgment and poor selection of words used in the prayer. I pray that we do better in the future."

The prayer was re-written in a more generic fashion: "For all our beloved dead, especially (particular parish intentions), and for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, that they may find their eternal reward in the arms of God. We pray."

Liturgy Training Publications publishes about 50 religious books a year, and provides Sunday mass material to interested parishes around the country. The Kennedy prayer was written for the Prayer of the Faithful part of mass, and made available by download, Thomas said in a Tuesday interview.

The initial version was in circulation for about a day before it was replaced by the new one, he said, adding it's possible some churches still used the original. Although the flap made the rounds on the Web, Thomas estimated there were only about 20 emails and telephone complaints in all.

Some of the gripes went to Cardinal Francis George's office, but Thomas said the cardinal "didn't ask us to fix it -- I don't think he had a chance to know about it until we fixed it because he was in transit," traveling.

"I'm sorry that it happened, I'm glad we were able to try, at least, to fix it fairly quickly," Thomas said.

Malloy told ChicagoCatholicNews he's pleased with the response from Thomas' group.

"I wrote a note to them saying to pray for Sen. Kennedy as one who promoted peace, justice and equality, ignoring the millions of babies killed through abortion, was simply a lie," Malloy said. "He certainly didn't promote liberty for the unborn, or equality and justice. And that's what I found offensive."

"I think we pray for everyone who's dead, our enemies, we pray for them, but we don't extol them," he added.

"I have a great respect for that company . . . I've used some of their publications . . . they have some good material. I think they're sincere. They just made a mistake, and they admitted it."

For more on this topic, visit a story on the Chicago Sun-Times web site.

By ChicagoCatholicNews
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com

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