Good Friday is different in the United States.
In most Christian-majority countries, Good Friday is a federal holiday — but not in the United States, even though some states observe it. Other Protestant countries — Great Britain, notably — have made Good Friday a national holiday. But the distinctive Protestant culture of the United States does not emphasize Holy Week or Good Friday, as is customary in Catholic cultures.
The most famous Good Friday in American history was in 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre. After the surrender on Palm Sunday at Appomattox, the triumphal “entry” was styled as ending in a martyr’s death, following the biblical chronology. What is remarkable, though, is that Lincoln, along with Washington high society, was at the theatre at all on Good Friday, let alone for a comedic play. That theatres in 1865 would be doing commerce on Good Friday was unimaginable in other Christian countries.
Take another, less dramatic example. The premier golf tournament in the world, the Masters, concludes on the second Sunday of April. It’s fixed, independent of liturgical season. Augusta, Georgia, has a strong Christian culture, but liturgical sensibility is weaker. So golfers are out on Good Friday when the Masters falls during Holy Week. At least the Augusta National pimento cheese sandwiches are meat-free.
That gave rise to an incongruous scene in 2004. Jim Caviezel, the devout Catholic actor, had the title role in The Passion of the Christ, which had opened on Ash Wednesday. His next film was the tale of a golfing legend who played for the love of the game. Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius was opening in late April 2004. It would be impossible not to promote the film at the Masters; Jones both developed the course and started the tournament in the 1930s.
So there was Caviezel in Augusta during Holy Week 2004, calling around to find a convenient Catholic parish. It created no little stir among the parishioners to find “Jesus” kneeling beside them on Good Friday.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of a much less edifying Good Friday in the history of American Catholic culture. In the long progression of Catholics from the cultural margins to the American mainstream, and the concomitant loss of a distinctive Catholic identity, the September 1960 address by presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association is thought a signal point. Not to worry about having a Catholic president, JFK told the Protestant ministers, because my Catholic faith won’t really affect my presidency. Hilaire Belloc to the voters of South Salford it was not. [1]
In 1961, his first year as president, JFK spent Easter at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach. Thirty years later, Ted Kennedy would do the same, with events that marked how much Catholic culture had receded among many Catholics who aspire to cultural influence and political power.
On Good Friday 1991, Ted Kennedy, his son Patrick — a Rhode Island assemblyman — and his nephew William Kennedy Smith went out late in the evening to Au Bar, a nightclub. The three would return to the Kennedy home, the two younger men with women for some casual sex. The woman with William Kennedy Smith accused him of rape, resulting in acquittal after a sensational trial, covered gavel to gavel on CNN. It was OJ before OJ. Ted Kennedy had no role in the alleged criminal events, but that the patriarch of the nation’s most famous Catholic clan would preside over such a sordid affair on Good Friday was scandalous.
Loss of Catholic identity is often measured in political compromises, from JFK to Ted Kennedy to the present president. Culture is more important than politics, though, and Good Friday 1991 in Palm Beach was a more powerful indication that Catholic culture had become enervated in the extreme.
In almost any other country in 1991, the Kennedys would not have gone cruising on Good Friday. The nightclubs would have been closed. That they were open at all is a peculiarity of American religiosity. Despite that, even a residual Catholic culture would have restrained a Catholic senator and his assemblyman son from such behavior. That it didn’t is as much of an indictment as any number of abortion votes in the Senate.
“I wish I’d gone on a long walk on the beach instead, but we went to Au Bar,” Ted Kennedy testified in his nephew’s rape trial. Better still if he had made the Stations of the Cross and called it an early night. It’s what a quondam Catholic culture used to do.
[1] “Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking a rosary out of his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.” Hilaire Belloc (b. 1870- d. 1953), excerpt from a 1906 speech he gave to voters in South Salford.
The above comes from a March 30 article by Raymond de Souza in First Things. De Souza is a priest in the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario.
We’re not a Christian country. The Kennedys are not a Catholic family. Case closed.
An intentional observation of Good Friday that may take a sacrifice is far more valuable than one facilitated by some government giving the day off. If it’s important to the Christian, the Christian will observe it. 60 years ago when there were far more sincere Christians in the US? Sure. National Holiday. But to just provide the occasion of profaning the day of the Sacrifice of Christ with an opportunity to drink beer at the beach? Nah….
Good Friday is a federal holiday in England, because England has a state church– the Church of England. Protestants do not have the kinds.of liturgies, Sacraments, celebrations, and.observances that we do, as Catholics. They all celebrate Palm Sunday, but do not typically observe Holy Week, nor Good Friday. Some of them have a Communion service on Holy Thursday. They all celebrate Easter enthusiastically, with lots of festive liturgies, honoring Christ’s Resurrection. In the U.S., Christian holidays used to be celebrated and observed with deeper reverence. But as the 20th century progressed, our country lost its Christian religiosity, and by the end of the evil, filthy, rebellious 1960s, our country became very secularized. When I was growing up, Good Friday, though not a federal holiday, was recognized as a day for workers tto take off, public schools closed, and most stores closed. All Catholics observed fast/abstinence, and were in church. Most families prepared for Easter– coloring Easter Eggs, baking special foods, and other traditions. The reason Easter Sunday was never made a federal holiday in the U.S.– is that it always falls on a Sunday. All federal holidays give workers a weekday off. Many businesses have had a tradition of giving workers Good Friday and Easter Monday off, to compensate. Other countries have a wider range of holidays, celebrations, and honoring their country’s cultural traditions. America lacks one big culture– it is a mix of cultures, and offers to all peoples, a chance at a better life, materially.
The Kennedys – hardly the most Catholic families unless you are talking about disgraceful. Biden has picked up the baton. If our Bishops and Cardinals would speak out as they should instead of going to dinner with these heretics we might have clergy we could be proud of.
But the bishops have shown themselves as corrupt as the worst among the lay Catholics.
It is disgraceful when any Catholic uses Catholicism to not bring others to Jesus, but to justify living as they wish. Be grateful Christ has left us some good Bishops in America, and some good pastors. Do all you can to support them. While we pray and make sacrifices for the Bishops who refuse to defend all of Christ’s teachings. Christ knew many would reject Him, man is given that option by God to freely love Him, and make Jesus the center of one’s life.
John Kennedy Jr. was a failure. A pampered, spoiled, trust fund baby failure. What did he do with his life except life high and large off his inheritance? He founded a magazine that failed. He couldn’t fly planes, either, leading to his early death. Why so many people were enamored with him, I’ll never understand. Royalty? Is that why people fawn over Prince Harry and Megan Markle? They’re similarly losers in life.
I am frequently amazed at the amount of people here that proclaim their faith as one of forgiveness, under a tanding and reconciliation, yet deem themselves as judgment worthy to proclaim others as not living up to their perceived standard. Does it personally affect them individually when someone else is taking communion whom they have deemed as in unworthy? I would advise caution, for Jesus knows what’s in our hearts, and will judge us accordingly. One doesn’t know if that person taking communion is inwardly in need of that grace, or that connection with God. Perhaps those making judgments against others are seeking to affirm the Old Testsment, angry God view, or perhaps that they are more deserving of the church’s blessing because they can, like the Pharisees, point out the sinful ones as if they.themselves are sinless. The meritocracy and judgmental attitude is part of why some leave the church – they tire of the hypocrisy and guilt and shame, and seek.acceptance, love and support elsewhere. I am too busy pulling the log out of my own eye before I do as so many have here.
Canon law requires that ministers of holy Communion withhold the Eucharist from people obstinately persisting in manifest, grave sin. That’s the Church’s law. The law exists for good reason and is based on New Testament scripture. People who want that law enforced are not bad Catholics, nor are they judgmental, nor are they advocating a Marcion heresy that pits the Old Testament against the New. (Look it up.)
Liberals like you have unleashed a torrent of all kinds sin on this culture yet you will keep telling us judge not, no matter what perversion we have to deal with.
I have been reading this website for over a decade and I don’t think I’ve seen many people proclaiming their faith as one of forgiveness, understanding and reconciliation. I have also never seen anyone proclaim themselves as sinless.
” It created no little stir among the parishioners to find “Jesus” kneeling beside them on Good Friday.” Don’t know why. Whenever I show up at Mass, He’s always there.
He is there, waiting for visitors, everyday all day.
This article is among the worst ever posted by CCD. What do the Kennedys have to do with the practice of the Catholic faith in America? Zero. Each Catholic must decide for themselves whether to keep Good Friday and each Sunday holy…or not. I find many Catholics are just plain slothful about many aspects of the faith. My advice: turn of the TV, sign off of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and spend time in the Sacred Scriptures and in prayer. The USCCB website has the scripture readings and a video reflection for each day of the week. Check it out.
The article is teaching us some important Biblical lessons if we look for them. We can learn from the mistakes of others’ not to do the same things ourselves and how to avoid a lot of heartbreak and misery.
It is wrong for Catholics to put secular culture before religious duties, but Protestants and Jews have committed similar sins. King Saul lost his throne, and his family dynasty ended because he got mixed up with the occult when he turned to the witch of Endor.
I have often wondered about the death of President Lincoln after he allowed his wife to bring mediums into the Whitehouse to have seances there after their son died. Should not Abraham Lincoln and his wife have turned to the Lord instead, as had his Old Testament namesake?
We all need to turn toward the Lord again. “Jesus I trust in you.”
Nancy Reagan and her astrologers used to creep me out.
I was the one who gave the one thumbs up on this Anonymous post above as I think it was wrong of Nancy Reagan to have gone to astrologers too. I once put down on a piece of paper all the predictions an astrologer with the last name Dixon (forgot her first name) gave for the next year, and not one of her predictions came true. I have read, though, that Ronald Reagan himself did not approve of astrology,
Jeanne. She was more than an astrologer. She was a psychic.
She claimed to be a psychic but was not, neither was Uri Gelller. Johnny Carson and another magician told how he did his tricks. The magician wrote a book about it. I forget his name. Carson was angry that Geller presented himself as a real psychic.