{"id":290,"date":"2009-08-26T21:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/08\/kennedy-the-final-days.html"},"modified":"2009-08-26T21:58:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-26T21:58:00","slug":"kennedy-the-final-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/08\/kennedy-the-final-days.html","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy: the final days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SpXpLXoSrBI\/AAAAAAAAGDs\/U_4Gy586LRc\/s1600-h\/27year_650.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px;text-align: center;cursor: pointer;width: 400px;height: 305px\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SpXpLXoSrBI\/AAAAAAAAGDs\/U_4Gy586LRc\/s400\/27year_650.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>The Senator from Massachusetts had come to rely more intently on his faith, according to his family and his priest.<\/p>\n<p>From the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/08\/27\/us\/politics\/27year.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print\">New York Times<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> In recent years, friends say, Mr. Kennedy had come to lean heavily on his Roman Catholic faith. In eulogizing his mother, Rose Kennedy, in 1995, he spoke of the comfort of religious beliefs. \u201cShe sustained us in the saddest times by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us,\u201d Mr. Kennedy said, his voice stammering.<\/p>\n<p>He attended Mass every day in the year after his mother\u2019s death and continued to attend regularly, often a few times a week.<\/p>\n<p>The Rev. Mark Hession, the priest at the Kennedys\u2019 parish on the Cape, made regular visits to the Kennedy home this summer and held a private family Mass in the living room every Sunday. Even in his final days, Mr. Kennedy led the family in prayer after the death of his sister Eunice on Aug. 11. He died comfortably and in no apparent pain, friends and staff members said.<\/p>\n<p>His children had expected him to hold on longer \u2014 Mr. Kennedy\u2019s son Patrick and daughter Kara could not get back to Hyannis Port in time from California and Washington.<\/p>\n<p>But the senator\u2019s condition took a turn Tuesday night and a priest \u2014 the Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Mass. \u2014 was called to his bedside. Mr. Kennedy spent his last hours in prayer, Father Tarrant told a Boston television station, WCVB-TV.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Kennedy had told friends recently that he was looking forward to a \u201creunion\u201d with his seven departed siblings, particularly his brothers, whose lives had been cut short.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> There is much more about how Sen. Kennedy faced death &#8212; some of it both poignant and inspiring &#8212; at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/08\/27\/us\/politics\/27year.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=print\">the link<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:78%\"><b>PHOTO:<\/b>  <i> Sen. Kennedy last summer, shortly after his cancer diagnosis.  Photo by Matthew Lee \/ Boston Globe.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senator from Massachusetts had come to rely more intently on his faith, according to his family and his priest. From the New York Times: In recent years, friends say, Mr. Kennedy had come to lean heavily on his Roman Catholic faith. In eulogizing his mother, Rose Kennedy, in 1995, he spoke of the comfort&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kennedy: the final days - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/08\/kennedy-the-final-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kennedy: the final days - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Senator from Massachusetts had come to rely more intently on his faith, according to his family and his priest. From the New York Times: In recent years, friends say, Mr. Kennedy had come to lean heavily on his Roman Catholic faith. In eulogizing his mother, Rose Kennedy, in 1995, he spoke of the comfort&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/08\/kennedy-the-final-days.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-26T21:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SpXpLXoSrBI\/AAAAAAAAGDs\/U_4Gy586LRc\/s400\/27year_650.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kennedy: the final days - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/08\/kennedy-the-final-days.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kennedy: the final days - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"The Senator from Massachusetts had come to rely more intently on his faith, according to his family and his priest. From the New York Times: In recent years, friends say, Mr. Kennedy had come to lean heavily on his Roman Catholic faith. 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