By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe
August 28, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/08/kennedy_and_the.html
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I'm getting lots of e-mail in response to today's story about Kennedy and Catholicism, with many questions and observations, some of which I'll try to share over the course of the day.
Among those who e-mailed was Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who represented scores of victims of clergy sexual abuse, who wanted to share a little about Kennedy's response to the abuse crisis. Here's what Garbedian told me:
A few years ago Senator Kennedy, while traveling to a meeting concerning the conditions at Guantanamo Bay, personally called me to express his support for clergy sexual abuse victims and for my legal representation of clergy sexual abuse victims.
While speaking with Senator Kennedy about the the harm to clergy sexual abuse victims I could sense a genuineness in his heart and a sincerity in his soul. He was very easy to talk to. It was like discussing the matter with the concerned neighbor next door. Senator Kennedy was not in a rush to end the conversation. In our discussion, Senator Kennedy stressed the continuing need to help those less fortunate.
Several scholars I spoke with yesterday pointed out to me that Kennedy, despite being repeatedly criticized by the Catholic right, never fought back by criticizing the church. I took a look in our clips to see what Kennedy said about the abuse crisis.
In February of 2002, Kennedy said Cardinal Law should not resign over the abuse crisis. "What I'm most interested in is those families, their needs, and their tension and their anxiety, their pain, is attended to, and that we're going to develop within this whole archdiocese an accountability and a responsibility," he said.
But when Law did resign, in December of 2002, Kennedy said the resignation was the "right thing to do for the victims, their families, the church and the whole of the Catholic community. Real closure is far off for the victims, their families and all that are hurt by the terrible pain of this ordeal. But today is the first step toward a new dawn in our hearts and in our church."
(Photo, by Bill Greene of the Globe staff, shows Cardinal Law and Sen. Kennedy in Boston on March 2, 1987.)
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