Sargent Shriver laid to rest amid praise for faithful public life

CNA Friends and family of political candidate and public servant R. Sargent Shriver remembered his life in a Jan. 22. Mass in Potomac, Maryland celebrated by Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
A devout Catholic, Shriver died at the age of 95 after years of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. A brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, he was the first director of the Peace Corps. He also served as the 1972 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, the last pro-life candidate to rise to such prominence in the party.
He later served as U.S. ambassador to France. Shriver had five children and 19 grandchildren.
Attendees at the funeral Mass at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church included Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, who paid tribute to his life of service.
"Fifty years ago, President Kennedy told us we should ask what we can do for our country," Clinton said. "A whole generation of us understood what President Kennedy meant by looking at Sargent Shriver's life."
First lady Michelle Obama and television personality Oprah Winfrey also attended. Musical performances came from Haitian musician Wyclef Jean, Vanessa Williams, U2 front man Bono, and Glen Hansard.
Shriver’s son Mark recounted his father’s last years, according to the AP.
"Alzheimer's robs you of so much. In Dad's case, it stripped him to the core," he said. Still, Shriver "would shake your hand and smile, look you in the eye and tell you you were the greatest and that he loves you."
Shriver’s body was buried at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Centerville, Massachusetts hours after his funeral. He was laid to rest alongside his wife Eunice, who founded the Special Olympics. She died in 2009 at the age of 88.
Cardinal Wuerl in a Jan. 19 statement said Shriver left a legacy both in his “deeply spiritual” faith life and in his example of service to “make it much more reflective of the care and love we all should have for each other as children of the same loving God.”
“Sargent Shriver was proud to live his faith in public life,” he continued, saying his prayers were with the Shriver family and the entire Kennedy family.
At the funeral, the cardinal advised Shriver’s grandchildren to live their lives with the same courage and fortitude as their grandparents.
"Ask your parents to tell you stories. Read what your grandfather has written. When you think of him, rejoice in the heritage he has given you," the cardinal said.
Both Shriver and his wife were signatories to a full-page July 1992 New York Times advertisement protesting the Democratic Party’s embrace of legalized abortion. The ad, titled “The New American Compact,” declared the pro-abortion Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade to be “the most momentous act of exclusion in our history” which deprived every unborn human being of the “most fundamental” human right to life.
While many Catholic commentators have focused on Sargent Shriver’s principled pro-life stand and public service, Shriver played a significant role in the controversies over government funding of birth control.
As head the Office of Economic Opportunity, Shriver led the Johnson Administration’s “War on Poverty.” His office was also the first to fund birth control programs at a time when the American political establishment was embracing contraceptives and many influential people were pressing for a change in Catholic teaching.
In a series of speeches in the mid-1960s, published on the website of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute, Shriver praised the Office of Economic Opportunity for being “the first agency in the history of the federal government to give public money directly to private agencies for family planning purposes.”
His Oct. 1967 speech at Hardin-Simmons University in Abeline, Texas noted Catholic criticism that his office was “doing too much by way of providing money for Planned Parenthood.”
After Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood would go on to become the United States’ largest abortion provider.
The July 7, 1966 Denver Catholic Register reported that Shriver circulated a memorandum saying his office had “absolutely no hesitation” in approving family planning grants.
Bishop Paul F. Tanner, then-general secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference--a predecessor of the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference--criticized the memo for abandoning neutrality on government support for birth control in favor of “outright advocacy.” Catholic bishops at the time voiced concern that the U.S. government would pressure families in economic distress to use it.
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Catholic politician and public servant Robert Sargent Shriver died on Jan. 18 at the age of 95 in Bethesda, Maryland. He was remembered for his faith and leadership, his service to the poor and his prominent stand as a pro-life Democrat. “Today we mourn the passing of one of America’s most beloved and respected citizens,” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, commented. Shriver was born to a prominent Maryland family on Nov. 9, 1915. He was educated in law at Yale University and served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during the Second World War. He married Eunice Kennedy in the early 1950s and served on the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago. His brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, appointed Shriver to create the Peace Corps program which sends American volunteers to developing countries to teach and to work on community projects. As head the Office of Economic Opportunity, Shriver led many government efforts to combat poverty. His office developed the Head Start program, the Volunteers in Service to America and Job Corps. His political life included service as U.S. ambassador to France, a vice-presidential run in 1972 and a run for president in 1976. He later became president and chairman of the Special Olympics, which his wife founded. The last years of his life included a struggle with Alzheimer ’s disease. His daughter Maria Shriver, a former television journalist and former First Lady of California, published a children’s book on the subject. Shriver leaves behind five children and 19 grandchildren. His wife Eunice died in 2009. In a Jan. 18 statement, Cardinal O’Malley described him as a “champion” for millions of people and as a man dedicated to his family and public service. “He changed the world for the better. His commitment to preserving and protecting human life at every stage of existence, especially for the unborn, and working to lift people out of poverty were exceptional gifts of love and humanity,” the cardinal continued. Shriver and his late wife “showered us with their energy and devotion to faith and society and they shall remain ever in our thoughts and prayers.” “We pray for the repose of Sargent’s soul and we ask that God grant him eternal rest in His loving Kingdom,” Cardinal O’Malley concluded. Shriver and his wife were signatories to a full-page July 1992 New York Times advertisement protesting the Democratic Party’s embrace of abortion politics. Titled “The New American Compact,” the ad denounced abortion as a drastic reversal of American progress towards liberty and justice for all. It declared the pro-abortion Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade to be “the most momentous act of exclusion in our history” which deprived every unborn human being of the “most fundamental” human right to life. The ad also called for support for policies that help both mother and child, saying “We can choose to extend once again the mantle of protection to all members of the human family, including the unborn.” If such choices are made, the signatories predicted, “America will experience a new birth of freedom, bringing with it a renewed spirit of community, compassion, and caring." Columnist Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, writing in Canada’s National Post, compared Shriver favorably to other members of the Kennedy family. “Robert Sargent Shriver lived his life as God intended. He was a devout Catholic, often at daily Mass and never without his rosary. A faithful husband and devoted father, he applied his considerable talent and influence on behalf of the weak and the poor. He knew the glamour of the spotlight, but worked for those in the shadows,” Fr. de Souza wrote. “Shriver was the most outstanding statesman in a tradition that has almost entirely disappeared -- the principled Catholic man of the left.” The columnist charged that the political left became allied with “the agenda of sexual libertinism” through “the corrosive politics of abortion.” This made the defense of traditional values and concern for the poor appear to be incompatible. “Today's Democratic Party would never nominate a pro-life Catholic for national office; Shriver's nomination in 1972 was the last of its kind. The political left has become the party of secularism, something that pained both Sargent and Eunice Shriver in their latter years,” Fr. de Souza claimed. He suggested that Shriver kept his values because for him politics was “only a means.” He also noted that Shriver’s former speechwriter and friend Colman McCarthy has suggested that Sargent and Eunice will be canonized as saints. Fr. de Souza said this was the right category for his legacy because “the true platform of Shriver’s life was the Gospel.” A public wake for Shriver will be held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. A private funeral Mass will be held on Jan. 22 at Our Lady of Mercy in Potomac, Maryland on Saturday. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, will celebrate the Mass.
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The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent. The speech led the United States Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty.
As a part of the Great Society, Johnson's belief in expanding the government's role in social welfare programs from education to health care was a continuation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which ran from 1933 to 1935, and the Four Freedoms of 1941.
The popularity of a war on poverty waned after the 1960s. Deregulation, growing criticism of the welfare state, and an ideological shift to reducing federal aid to impoverished people in the 1980s and 1990s culminated in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which, as claimed President Bill Clinton, "end[ed] welfare as we know it." The late historian, Prof. Tony Judt, said in reference to the earlier proposed title of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act that "a more Orwellian title would be hard to conceive" and attributed the decline in the popularity of the Great Society as a policy to its success, as fewer people feared hunger, sickness, and ignorance. Additionally, fewer people were concerned with ensuring a minimum standard for all citizens and social liberalism.[1] The last book he published was Ill Fares the Land only a few months before he passed away, where he plotted the rise and fall of the War on Poverty. Nonetheless, the aftermath of the War on Poverty remains in the continued existence of such federal programs as Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America, and Job Corps.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Poverty