c.1997 The Boston Globe
< SHATTERED FAITH< By Sheila Rauch Kennedy< Pantheon, 238 pp., $23< <
Inquiring minds will be very disappointed by this book, and that is one of its virtues.
``Shattered Faith'' reveals little about the author's failed 12-year marriage to US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II of Brighton. There is no tabloid dirt unearthed here. The curtain remains tightly drawn around their years together and their twin sons. The name Kennedy rarely appears on the pages and there are only passing references to Sheila Rauch Kennedy's ex-husband's famous father, Robert, and uncles John and Ted.
Instead, this is a polemic aimed dead-on at the Roman Catholic Church and marriage annulment, a process the author calls ``bogus'' and ``a lie.'' The overarching theme is that the annulment process symbolizes the church's insensitivity toward women and hypocritical accommodation of divorced Catholics.
``Shattered Faith'' is one long howl of protest, joined at times by a chorus of complaints from many other women who tell stories of painful, disillusioning annulment proceedings. They are angry because annulment is not merely ``Catholic divorce''—a civil standard the church does not recognize—but a declaration ``to a moral certainty'' that the marriage was defective from the outset and never truly existed. Divorced Catholics who remarry outside the church may not participate in sacraments such as confession and Holy Communion.
As an Episcopalian who married a member of a famous Catholic family, Rauch Kennedy has clearly taken pains to try to understand a proceeding which told even with this amount of detail seems mysterious. An accompanying bibliography lists books and articles, many of them cited in the text.
She examines the evolution of church attitudes toward marriage, from Emperor Constantine's 4th-century laws on divorce to Gratian's 12th-century textbook on the church's legal system of canon law, to the Council of Trent's restated opposition to divorce in 1563 and the Second Vatican Council's modernization of church law in the 1960s (which produced a hundredfold increase in the number of annulments each year in the United States).
But the scholarly exercise merely provides the scaffolding for her own story and that of the other women, all raised as devout Catholics. Many use pseudonyms and several were driven away from the church by the experience. Two successfully fought their annulments, one by appealing all the way to the Vatican, where Rauch Kennedy's appeal of her 1996 annulment apparently is pending.
Five years after their divorce, the Kennedy annulment was granted on grounds that Joseph lacked ``due discretion,'' a catchall for immaturity or impaired judgment. He married Beth Kelly, a member of his congressional staff, in a civil ceremony in 1993 after petitioning for annulment.
In explaining why she has fought the annulment so tenaciously, Rauch Kennedy writes: ``I was still concerned that the children know that their birth was the result of great love, commitment, true happiness and a Christian marriage rather than a non-existent union. They should never have to question that their lives brought immeasurable joy to both of their parents, and neither their father nor his church would ever be able to convince me otherwise.''
The prose of ``Shattered Faith'' is clear and unembellished, consistent with its relentless and humorless tone of anger and exasperation at a proceeding that seems coldly bureaucratic and secretive. At times, Rauch Kennedy uses simple logic to drive home her complaint that the annulment process is irrational even within the context of church law.
``Murder is presumably a greater sin than divorce,'' she writes. ``Yet even a murderer can seek penance from a priest through confession and be forgiven for his sin. However, a divorced Catholic who has remarried outside the church cannot even attend confession.''
At other points, however, the book suffers from lapses into hyperbole, anti-papist stereotyping and the occasional cheap shot. For example, Rauch Kennedy exploits one of the Catholic church's great embarrassments—pedophile priests—to drive home a point on annulment.
``Priests take a vow similar to that of marriage when they enter the priesthood. If they turn out to be child abusers, is it not logical to assume that they suffered from psychological defect at the time they took their vows? ... But the church does not annul the priesthood of child abusers.''
And responding to church demands of confidentiality, she engages in overkill in a heavy-handed chapter titled ``American Soil.'' When the Rev. Robert O'Connor, the Boston Archdiocese tribunal judge of her case, says she may have a transcript of their interview ``if I promised never to tell anyone what was said in the room,'' Rauch Kennedy is outraged.
``Didn't this man know that this was America?,'' she writes. ``In this country, not even a priest is permitted to force someone to give up his constitutional right of free speech. How dare he use a copy of my own testimony as a bribe to keep me quiet?''
``Shattered Faith'' is Sheila Rauch Kennedy's response to that demand for a vow of silence.
The Globe and Mail
with Reuters News Agency
Canadian Catholics welcomed yesterday the Vatican's publication of an article that urges Roman Catholics to respect homosexuals, saying they too can achieve sanctity in the church if they abstain from sex.
The tone of the article in Wednesday's L'Osservatore Romano was far more compassionate and tolerant of gays than the church has been in the past.
The article, the last of a 14-part series of reflections on homosexuality and Christianity by Jean-Louis Brugues, a member of the Catholic Church's International Theological Commission, calls for the ``acceptance of people in their diversity.'' Its surprisingly accommodating approach prompted headlines in the Italian press such as one in Rome's La Repubblica yesterday: ``Chaste gays will be saints.''
The article says gays should have a role in the church and that role should be a full one, including participation in the sacraments, if they remain chaste.
It also makes clear that, though homosexual tendencies are not wrong, homosexual acts are sinful. It repeated the church teaching that only heterosexual, monogamous marriage is permitted.
Suzanne Scorsone, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said yesterday the position presented by Mr. Brugues in the article is ``totally consistent'' with that presented in the church's catechism, last revised in 1992.
``I'm happy to see (the article) because it helps people to understand church teachings,'' Ms. Scorsone said. ``It shows that the church is making a distinction between orientation and behaviour and that the person is allowed to be loved, cared for and treated with respect.''
Ms. Scorsone said the church's view on homosexuality and chastity is in keeping with its views on the expression of sexuality generally.
``There isn't something marginalizing about this - unmarried heterosexuals aren't supposed to have sexual relations, either - it's about where we believe sexuality fits in.''
Sandra Glynn, spokeswoman for Catholics of Vision Canada, a reform group calling for new church teachings on sexuality, said the article seems to contain messages for both reformers and conservatives.
``On one hand, it states the church's position and, on the other, it seems to be an attempt to tone down some of the excessive views that have developed from some of those positions,'' Ms. Glynn said. ``(The article) bends over backward to express traditional views, but it also emphasizes compassion.''
The article says Catholics, including priests, should not show ``contempt'' for homosexuals but treat them with the same charity as they would other Christians.
A priest who ministers to homosexuals must ``overcome his fears and perhaps repress his opposition or even the repulsion that homosexuality inspires in him more or less consciously.''
It continues: ``Christian communities should be careful to refrain from every expression of contempt toward persons who have this particularity.''
Priests who minister to homosexual Catholics should help them come out of the ``ghettos'' and take part with other Catholics in political, social and church life, the article says.
William Kokesch, spokesman for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, praised the article's tone.
``There's an element in the church that still has to have a change of mind on this issue to reflect the attitude in this article,'' Mr. Kokesch said. ``If the church doesn't talk about it, it will allow those attitudes to continue.''
Arci Gay, Italy's largest homosexual rights group, praised the Vatican for drawing attention to gay rights in the church, but blasted it for continuing to insist that they remain chaste.
``The repeated interventions of the church are a recognition of the homosexual question, but the opinions expressed are heartless and cruel,'' Arci Gay president Franco Grillini said.
END
The New York Times said in an editorial on Friday, April 25:
Chief Judge Judith Kaye's campaign to overhaul the tangled, inefficient workings of New York state's court system has found a ripe new target for reform in the Family Courts.
With jurisdiction over a range of family issues, including adoption, divorce, domestic violence, child custody and juvenile delinquency, Family Court's caseload has swelled enormously. In 1996 the courts handled about 700,000 cases. By the year 2000 that number is expected to surpass 800,000. Meanwhile, well-publicized incidents of domestic assault and child abuse have riveted attention on the need for earlier intervention by the justice system to protect children and spouses from violence.
Practical innovations announced last week by Judge Kaye will help make Family Court more accessible to its clients and better able to address the serious matters before it. One simple change will extend closing hours from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., beginning two nights a week this summer in Brooklyn. The plan also calls for installing video equipment in satellite offices so that people can obtain a court order of protection, for example, without having to travel to distant courthouses.
Another simple change will create one standardized form for uncontested divorces, replacing the dozens of different versions now in use around the state, thus helping to reduce processing times and administrative hassles for divorcing couples without a lawyer. Special drug courts will be created to address the substance abuse involved in cases of child abuse or neglect. The courts will give judges the information they need to make informed decisions, and require addicted parents to complete treatment as a condition of maintaining custody.
Disappointingly, Judge Kaye's reform package leaves untouched Family Court's practice of barring the press from most proceedings, preventing serious scrutiny of the day-to-day performance of Family Court judges and agencies that regularly deal with the court. Changing that closed culture should be next on Judge Kaye's agenda.
< NYT-04-25-97 0112EDT<
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