Terry Mattingly

Rites, wrongs and a letter from Rome

In terms of political content, the unofficial state funeral (video here) of Sen. Edward Kennedy was pretty normal, with pews full of presidents and prose full of allusions to legislation that helped the masses, with President Barack Obama in full civil-religion flight.


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Ted Kennedy: Catholic political icon

Frankly, I do not quite know where to start, in terms of focusing on the role of religion in the mainstream media coverage of the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. For starters, his Catholic faith is a given. At the same time, so is his standing as a deeply troubled leader, husband, father, uncle and patriarch of the always controversial Kennedy clan.


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That strange inquiry into nuns and doctrine

While the health-care wars are dominating the mainstream press at the moment, I think it’s interesting that the Vatican inquiry into the doctrinal standards of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is continuing to get quite a bit of ink. In fact, there’s too much coverage — click here for a sample — to take it on all at once.


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