A comment, and a question, from MOJ friend ...

... and Trinity College Dublin law prof Gerry Whyte:

I was intrigued by the apparent suggestion from Archbishop Burke that Ted Kennedy should have been denied a Catholic funeral. Throughout the years of the Troubles in N. Ireland, the Church never once denied a funeral to any republican paramilitary, even though republican violence was manifestly at odds with the Church's teaching. Nor was it ever suggested that, in permitting such funerals, the Church was backsliding from its persistent condemnation of republican violence.

But was Archbishop Burke objecting to the fact that Ted Kennedy received a Catholic funeral or to the fact that Cardinal O'Malley presided?