Fr. Michael Orsi has an interesting article on Teddy Kennedy's death and funeral. I think Fr. Orsi is right to conclude that probably the best course of action with Kennedy was "a subdued funeral service" and a message that "the Mass is being celebrated to beg God's mercy for the deceased." That is not what happened from the clips of the funeral that I watched: the Obama eulogy; the Prayers of the Faithful, which consisted of inane, meaningless language cribbed from Kennedy's own speeches over the years (including last year's Democratic convention); and the homily. The whole tone of the event was one of celebration of Kennedy's life as a Democratic politician, not one of prayer for the repose of his soul.

UPDATE: I turned off the comments to this post. I wanted the comments to stay on the topic of the article and not the character of the author, which is a discussion I have no desire to moderate.