Cardinal O’Malley responds

Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley received considerable incoming fire after presiding at Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral.

O'Malley wrote on his blog post Wednesday that he disagreed "in the strongest terms" with those who argued that Kennedy did not deserve a Catholic funeral.

Jacqueline L. Salmon called his defense "spirited." But as David Gibson and Mark Silk have observed, it was more than that.

O’Malley's reproach to his zealous critics was broad, not narrowly defensive of his action:

At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church. If any cause is motivated by judgment, anger or vindictiveness, it will be doomed to marginalization and failure.

This call for moderation comes soon after the resignation under a cloud of Bishop Joseph Martino and repudiation of partisan, conservatives bishops by Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan.

That does not mean this debate is somehow simple, as tmatt reminds us, nor all of its origins obvious. But the authority of the call for moderation is increasingly clear.