In the majestic Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington during an Oct. 16 Celebration of Life for Ethel Skakel Kennedy, singer Stevie Wonder honored his friend by first singing the Our Father accompanied by a harpist, and then leading the congregation in a rousing version of “Isn’t She Lovely.”
During the nearly three-hour memorial service, the three U.S. presidents, her children and grandchildren, a former Speaker of the House, and the two farmworker leaders who spoke testified to that quality of Ethel Kennedy, who died Oct. 10 at the age of 96. They remembered the widow of Robert F. Kennedy as the matriarch of her large family, as a national icon who took up the torch of her late husband’s work for human rights and social justice, and as a woman of faith and humor.
Welcoming the congregation of 1,000 people filling the cathedral, Joseph Kennedy III, one of Ethel Kennedy’s grandchildren, said the gathering offered a time to celebrate “our beloved matriarch and without a doubt, the world’s greatest grandma.”
He opened his remarks by addressing “Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President” — President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton who sat side-by-side in a front pew and all later made remarks.
Moments earlier, Jesuit Father Don MacMillan, a family friend, had offered prayers before dozens of Ethel Kennedy’s family members accompanied her casket down the cathedral’s center aisle. The casket was placed in front of the sanctuary at the spot where the casket of her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, had been placed at his Requiem Mass on Nov. 25, 1963, after his assassination.
The service’s opening hymn, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” with music drawn from Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” reflected the mood that unfolded as the speakers and guest musicians honored Ethel Kennedy’s life and legacy.
A statement from her family six days earlier had announced her death from complications related to a stroke. The family’s statement noted that Ethel Kennedy “was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant” who was survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Her funeral Mass was celebrated Oct. 14 at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Mass.
“My grandmother’s life was a life fully lived,” said Joseph Kennedy III in his opening remarks at the celebration of her life at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Kennedy — now a United States special envoy to Northern Ireland who formerly served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts — said Ethel Kennedy regarded every day as an opportunity to learn, to love and to battle for what is right.
In an opening prayer, Father MacMillan, a former campus minister at Boston College, noted that Ethel Kennedy was a woman of deep faith who put her hope and trust in God.
Ethel Kennedy’s eldest child, her daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, spoke, telling how their mother brought her and two of her young brothers to Senate hearings to see their father investigate the mob. The children also visited him at work when he served as the U.S. attorney general. Their mother, she said, raised her children to play together in sports, to discuss current events, history and politics and to pray regularly. Summers at Hyannis Port in Cape Cod included morning Mass, and horseback riding, sailing, swimming and playing baseball or softball. “Our days ended with Bible readings and the rosary,” she said.
Kennedy Townsend — who formerly served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland — said their mother with her devotion to her faith could relate to the words of Mary in the Magnificat prayer: “The Almighty has done great things for me.”
“Despite all the tragedies that darkened so many of her days, the Almighty had done great things for her,” said Kennedy Townsend, who said that explains why Ethel Kennedy often asked her family, “How lucky are we?”
Concluding her remarks, Kennedy Townsend said, “We have been lucky, Mommy, because we lived so long with you, who have been so in love all these years with Daddy.”
Martin Luther King III praised Ethel Kennedy for living “a luminous life of faith, love and service” and said that his family and the Kennedy family have had “a shared journey.”
He said he first met Ethel Kennedy when she and Robert Kennedy came to the Kings’ family home in April 1968 to offer their support after the assassination of his father, the civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“And just two months later, my mother (Coretta Scott King) went to the Kennedy home to express her condolences after the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy. Like millions of Americans, I was deeply moved and profoundly impressed by the remarkable courage and dignity that Mrs. Kennedy displayed in the difficult days after her beloved husband was assassinated,” Martin Luther King III said.
A surprise guest, Sting, played the guitar and sang his song, “Fragile,” that includes the lyrics, “…Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could… On and on the rain will fall, like tears from a star, like tears from a star…”
The next speaker, Rory Kennedy, the youngest of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, reflected on how she was born in December 1968, six months after her father’s death. “Mommy was all I ever had,” she said. “…It had become just us, all of us and Mommy. We were in it together.”
Rory Kennedy said her mother always believed in her and was her staunchest advocate, and told how when she was about 14 years old and was troubled after seeing television reports on apartheid in South Africa, she asked her mother if she and her brother Douglas could go and protest apartheid and get arrested at the South African Embassy. Ethel Kennedy said, “Great, I’ll drive!” Later, she said her mother looked on proudly as she was arrested for protesting there.
Singer Nova Tate accompanied by the choir from St. Martin of Tours Parish in Washington sang the song “The Blessing” and “Ave Maria.”
About two dozen of Ethel Kennedy’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren offered prayers and reflections to honor her. The grandchildren recited the first names of deceased family members, and one noted, “We thank God for the light they all shined on us in their time on earth.”
The Kennedy family announcement about Ethel Kennedy’s death noted that in addition to her husband, she was also predeceased by their children David and Michael; their daughter-in-law Mary; their grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and their great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie.
After Stevie Wonder’s performance, President Biden stepped up to speak, and he joked that the long standing ovation he received was because he was the last speaker.
The president noted that in the Oval Office he placed sculpture busts of his two heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. He noted, “Ethel Kennedy is a hero in her own right.”
“We saw how she picked up Bobby’s cause and stamped her own mark on it,” he said.
President Biden noted how, “Ethel was always there for so many people. She played an essential role in my life, as well.”
Biden described how Ethel and Sen. Edward Kennedy supported him in 1972 after his wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident while shopping for a Christmas tree, and his two young sons were seriously injured. He was a newly elected U.S. senator from Delaware then, and the Kennedys convinced him not to give up. Biden said when his son Beau died of cancer in 2015 after serving with the National Guard in Iraq, Ethel Kennedy again offered him support.
“Your mom was there then, too,” the president said, his voice breaking slightly. Addressing the Kennedy family after losing their matriarch, he said, “The Biden family is here for you, as you’ve always been (there) for us.”
The president added, “My message to all of us today, to the entire country, is to look to Ethel Kennedy’s faith.”
Reflecting on her life, President Biden said, “For over 50 years, with an iron will and moral courage, she gave everything she had. We’re a better nation, a better world, because of Ethel Kennedy.”
At the end of the service, Father MacMillan offered a closing prayer and presided at the commendation, as Thomas Stehle, the cathedral’s director of music ministries, sang the “Song of Farewell” that is typically sung at the end of Catholic funerals.
As the Kennedy family members escorted Ethel Kennedy’s casket down the cathedral’s center aisle and then carried it outside, the congregation sang “America the Beautiful” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Moments earlier, Father MacMillan prayed words that seemed to summarize Ethel Kennedy’s life: “Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another.”
Zimmermann is editor of the Catholic Standard in Washington. Reprinted with permission.
Watch the service
View a full recording of the Celebration of Life for Ethel Skakel Kennedy at https://www.youtube.com/live/hC1C_viQ43U.
