Kennedy Funeral (The Mass Itself)

  • Thread starter Thread starter JaMc
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

JaMc

Guest
All debates about whether Ted Kennedy should have a public funeral Mass aside, this being the Liturgy and Sacraments board, let’s talk about the Mass itself!

One thing I noticed is that, despite many high profile singers and musicians, the Sanctus and Agnus Dei were spoken, rather than sung. I found that to be rather odd.
 
I just caught the end of the prayers of the faithful and didn’t hear it, but the commentators mentioned that they used some of “his (Ted’s)words”. Did anyone catch what they were referring to?
 
Just to back up the OP, there is to be NO discussion of Kennedy’s sins, flaws, political career, etc. in the L&S forum. Take discussions about those things to other, appropriate forums. Thank you all.
 
I caught the Ave Maria on the radio. Finally something good to listen to!

After that there was a long speech by his son… what part of the Mass was that?
 
Why didn’t the priest sing (or say) the Memorial Acclamation (“Let us proclaim the mystery of faith…”)?
 
Sorry if this has already been addressed, but how is the president allowed to deliver a eulogy? Does he actually do that after the funeral mass? It can’t possibly be in place of a homily, can it?
 
The Mass itself was beautiful. I was impressed with the music surrounding the event.

That said, this was very different than the private funeral Low Mass said for JFK. Times are different, though.
 
They did the eulogies at the end, just before Card. O’Malley blessed the coffin. This is also how they do it at my parish.

I suppose the spoken Psalm, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei would make it the Ordinary Form equivalent to a low Mass?
 
How is it possible for a person who is NOT in communion with the Catholic Church (one who has been married, divorced, and remarried) to have a televised funeral Mass?
How is it possible for persons to be eulogized by family and government officials at the Mass BEFORE the Mass has ended?
I think irrefutable harm (causing great scandal) has been done to the Catholic Church in the United States by the priests that allowed such at the funeral Mass for Sen. Ted Kennedy! I am sick to death of such behavior by the leaders of my Catholic Church!
 
OldCatholic said:
How is it possible for a person who is NOT in communion with the Catholic Church (one who has been married, divorced, and remarried) to have a televised funeral Mass?
How is it possible for persons to be eulogized by family and government officials at the Mass BEFORE the Mass has ended?
I think irrefutable harm (causing great scandal) has been done to the Catholic Church in the United States by the priests that allowed such at the funeral Mass for Sen. Ted Kennedy! I am sick to death of such behavior by the leaders of my Catholic Church!
Click to expand...
While I, actually, agree with you, there are plenty of threads in the different forums about whether he should have a public funeral Mass or not, and I really don’t want this thread to be closed.
 
I heard some commentator say that because Ted K. has had the Las Rites his sins were all forgiven & therefore the Mass was for a person in good standing. (my interpatation of what was said).
 
I, too, am disappointed. With all of that musical talent, the parts of the Mass should have been sung. These take precedence over the hymns. The psalm should have been sung as well as the Gospel acclamation. At least they could have had either the soprano or Placido Domingo chant the psalm and the Gospel Acclamation, or, at least lead in the singng of the parts of the Mass. However, they did do the right thing in omitting it since it was not sung.

I am concerned, though, about the fact that the celebrant omitted the Memorial Acclamation. He does not have the authority to do that.

The other disappointing thing was that the Lectionary should have been used. The readings should have been proclaimed from the Lectionary and not on slips of paper. Furthermore, the General Intercessions were not very good. In fact, I think that they were ilicit. They should not have been based on the senator’s words, but, on the tenents of the Church.

The funeral Mass should not have eulogies. The Church is very clear about that:
  1. At the Funeral Mass there should, as a rule, be a short homily, but never a eulogy of any kind.
Click to expand...
The homilist missed a wonderful opportunity to charitably remind the faithful, both the ones present at the basilica and the ones watching on TV, about the Church’s stance on pro-life and the importance of being faithful. It was a blown opportunity. Furthermore, he turned the homily into a eulogy, which was just as bad.
 
Newbie2 said:
I just caught the end of the prayers of the faithful and didn’t hear it, but the commentators mentioned that they used some of “his (Ted’s)words”. Did anyone catch what they were referring to?
Click to expand...
One of the littlest guys prayed that health care be passed. Here is an article from the blog that talks about the funeral Mass, and here is what the author wrote:

al007italia.blogspot.com/2009/08/cardinal-omalley-to-be-ringmaster-at.html
Then there is the so-called Intercessory Prayers that will consist of reading quotes from Ted Kennedy. Sorry, but once again this is in clear violation of the GIRM on what can & can’t be done for the Prayer of the Faithful which is its proper name. In this case, I suspect calling them “intercessory prayers” is more accurate since so many of those there are anything but faithful Catholics. So any prayer they said clearly would be a prayer of the unfaithful.
Click to expand...
Mary
 
benedictgal said:
The homilist missed a wonderful opportunity
Click to expand...
You’ve expressed a lot of gripes with which I agree. And I’ve stated same under another forum. However, remember that this event was witnessed all over the world to Catholics and non Catholics so whatever politics was involved unfortunately needs to take a back seat to the sacrifice at Calvary, which is what the OP addresses. I’m sure all events were at the request of the Kennedy family, which has to be respected more than what we’d like to see in a Catholic Mass.
 
Did anyone else notice how one of the priests who was con-celebrating kept throwing in gender neutral language, like saying “God” instead of “He”? I couldn’t tell which one was doing it, but the main celebrant was using the rubrics and one of them was going freestyle.
 
The Kennedy Clan did a beautiful job in planning Teddy’s funeral, the military honor guard and civic officials did their jobs well, but the Church sure didn’t show up with its 'A" team. As already noted their were no Church musicians present. Our liturgical music adds greatly to the Mass and it was sad to see it ommitted. The Archdiocese of Boston could have provided communication briefs to help the media understand the Liturgy better. It also could have provide the Archdiocesan cermonies crew to add dignity to the occasion. Redemptorists are great in their out reach to the poor but are not very good liturgists. And really they could have done without the Redemptorist’s “commercial” at the beginning. All of that being said, even a Catholic Funeral Liturgy done poorly is impressive.
 
PadraigPearce said:
Did anyone else notice how one of the priests who was con-celebrating kept throwing in gender neutral language, like saying “God” instead of “He”? I couldn’t tell which one was doing it, but the main celebrant was using the rubrics and one of them was going freestyle.
Click to expand...
That was certainly ilicit. The celebrant certainly deviated a lot from the funeral Mass texts as well. I do hope that Cardinal O’Malley has something to say about this.
 
The Requiem was very nice and touching with all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded it. However, I observed some things which were illicit.
-The Celebrant didn’t invoke The Trinity (Sign of the Cross)
-The concelebrants used different wording during the Eucharistic Prayer
Other than that,
The Music by Y0-yo Ma, Placigo Domingo, Chorus, and the Soprano’s Ave Maria were nice motets that accompanied today’s Solemn Liturgy. The Organ Voluntary was also nice.
 
hapragan said:
The Kennedy Clan did a beautiful job in planning Teddy’s funeral, the military honor guard and civic officials did their jobs well, but the Church sure didn’t show up with its 'A" team. As already noted their were no Church musicians present. Our liturgical music adds greatly to the Mass and it was sad to see it ommitted. The Archdiocese of Boston could have provided communication briefs to help the media understand the Liturgy better. It also could have provide the Archdiocesan cermonies crew to add dignity to the occasion. Redemptorists are great in their out reach to the poor but are not very good liturgists. And really they could have done without the Redemptorist’s “commercial” at the beginning. All of that being said, even a Catholic Funeral Liturgy done poorly is impressive.
Click to expand...
From what I’d heard - as soon as funeral plans were being discussed in the media days ago - alot of what we saw was planned/requested by Ted Kennedy himself. Aside from the eulogies, I don’t know how much a part the Kennedy Clan played in the planning but since Ted was so seriously ill, which both he and the family knew - this was probably all very much in place well before he died.

My question: Did anyone see if Obama or other non-Catholics were given Holy Communion?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top