" Good Friday " in July ?

  Reflecting on the tragic death of JFK Jr. , the Rev. Stephen Lynch of
St. Francis Chapel in Providence, gets downright lugubrious :
   " What happened in in the waters off Martha's Vineyard on this
painful ' Good Friday ' in July is drawing a new generation to the
Kennedy saga " ( Providence Journal, July 24 , page D5 )
     There is overwhelming evidence that JFK Jr. was a good man. And
perhaps some of the religiosity of grandmother Rose rubbed off on
him. Rose had to be a saint to put up with the philandering family
patriarch, Joe.
     But the Kennedys are not to be confused with the original
Holy Family - founded by another Joe.
     President Kennedy probably was a lot more " irreverent " than
he is given credit for. He was furious that Cardinal Spelman of
New York was actually a supporter of Richard Nixon in 1960. JFK
observed that the Church " powerhouse " had spent most of his
clerical career kissing the asses of the rich and famous.
     The good cardinal simply could not suffer JFK replacing
HIM as the number one Catholic in America.
     Also JFK sincerely believed in the separation of Church and
State. Cardinal Spelman was an incorrigible reactionary. And an
enemy of the poor. The equally influential Fulton Sheen accused
him -before the Pope ! -of stealing funds from the poor. Sheen
was later proven to have been telling the truth.
       One practical conclusion from the Kennedy family
tragedies: " Life is worth living ! "