“Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church.”

When considering Caroline Kennedy for Hillary Clinton’s empty Senate seat, David Patterson wisely recognized that a last name is not itself equal to the successes (cough) of others who have shared it. To reinforce the point, Ted Kennedy’s son Patrick, the Kennedy alcoholic, pill-popping House member from Rhode Island, is attempting to honor his father’s healthcare legacy by…picking a fight with the Catholic Church.

In an interview last week, Kennedy complained about the Church’s opposition to abortion funding in the proposed healthcare legislation:

“If the [Catholic] church is pro-life, then they ought to be for health care reform because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive. So this is an absolute red herring and I don’t think that it does anything but to fan the flames of dissent and discord and I don’t think it’s productive at all.”

In response, Rhode Island Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin said, “Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the State of Rhode Island.” And an embarrassment, too, as the Washington Post points out that Kennedy doesn’t actually know what he is talking about:

Kennedy’s comments do seem to ignore some crucial facts: Most importantly — as Georgetown/On Faith blogger Thomas J. Reese points out — U.S. Catholic bishops for decades have been at the forefront of the campaign for health-care reform.

Not only is it a stupid move to attack the most powerful religious institution in the world – moreover one that, by association, helped to define the Kennedy family in the first place – but to get the facts wrong while doing it makes me wish, as both a Catholic and an American, that the Kennedy dynasty had completely died with the “Lion of the Senate.”