Following the death of Eunice Kennedy Shriver two weeks ago, Pope Benedict sent her family a warm letter praising a “woman of ardent faith and generous public service” for “her many labors, particularly on behalf of those who are physically and mentally challenged.”
Perhaps survivors of Shriver’s brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who died yesterday, will get their own letter of papal condolence in due course. But at least one Vatican voice has already expressed a strikingly cool reaction to the senator’s death.
An obituary appearing in the international news section of tomorrow’s L’Osservatore Romano, more than a fifth of which is dedicated to the Chappaquiddick scandal, notes that Kennedy was “constantly on the front line in battles such as those for the protection of immigrants, arms control, a minimum wage for the less well-off. But unfortunately he also took positions in favor of abortion.”
Given the controversy earier this year over L’Osservatore‘s friendly coverage of President Obama, despite his support for legalized abortion, it’s easy to imagine that the editors of the pope’s newspaper were being especially careful not to suggest any blanket endorsement by the Vatican of the late senator’s record.