Abrahamic Family Reunion

One of the foundational beliefs of the Abrahamic Family Reunion project is that the goodness of a society is measured by how much we care for the least among us. The Hebrew prophets, Jesus and Muhammad all taught this standard. In marking Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s life, we honor one of the greatest Americans who cared.

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Message received from a national Catholic listserv -10:30 A.M. Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Eunice Kennedy Shriver: How God Must Smile Upon Her This Day

This morning, we awoke to the news that Eunice Kennedy Shriver had been taken from us. And yet, she leaves a world so much better than the one she found. Eunice came from one of the most gifted – and tragic – families in America . She took one of the tragedies in the family and from her own experience and her own heart, from her creative mind and boundless energy, she turned the nation around.

Eunice grew up with her sister Rosemary. They loved to swim and sail together; they even did Europe together. But Rosemary was what was called at the time mentally retarded. In her early 20’s, her increasing anger and frustration caused her father, Joseph P. Kennedy, to have her undergo an experimental procedure, a frontal lobotomy; the results were horrific: Rosemary lost most of her powers of speech and concentration; worse yet, the medical authorities of the day warned that she could not remain at home, she could not even handle a visit from her family, and so she was institutionalized from1941 until she died in 2005; and for may years, no one in the family was permitted to visit her.

Eunice was determined to change that practice, from top to bottom. She did.

She and Sargent Shriver were married in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan in 1953; he would go on to become the founding Director of the Peace Corps in the administration of his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy; later, Sargent served as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate in 1972, and he was even a contender for the Presidential nomination in 1976. Eunice and Sargent knew how to make an impact – but far more importantly, how to make a difference. While he worked for progress in law and politics, she worked to empower those suffering from mental retardation: she wanted them to be given full opportunities for self-development, for full competition in sports, for full-time work, and above all, for the fullness of self-respect. Her mission could be summed up in a phrase: she labored that they might have the fullness of life.

Eunice knew that it would be a two-front campaign: the mentally retarded would not be given a chance until American public saw that it would work. In 1957, as soon as she became the Vice President of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Foundation (named after her brother who had been shot down over Nazi Germany), she redirected its mission from general support of Catholic Charities to that two-front campaign: helping the retarded and helping others to go and do likewise.

Eunice knew that we were riddled with fear and prejudice. Her creativity and her energy showed us how we could do and be so much better.

In 1962, she went public. In a seminal article in the Saturday Evening Post (written with the permission of her brother, the President), she told Rosemary’s story to America . The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was founded the same year.

In the horrific year of 1968, Eunice, still working through the Foundation, launched the First International Special Olympics Summer Games. Her move was unprecedented. The results are stunning. Today, in some180 nations, over 3,000,000 special athletes compete annually.

Once, the mentally retarded were considered a family disgrace and a danger to themselves. They were shut away and they most certainly were not trained to be competitive in sports, lest than injure themselves. Now, their developmental challenges are much better understood; their education is calibrated to their needs and abilities; they are accorded a special welcome in the workplace; and their triumphs are matters of public record and family pride.

One person helped precipitate that sea change in our attitudes and that empowerment: Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She did it through all the years of her own siblings’ triumphs and tragedies, a family record unparalleled in our history. And she did it even while she and Sargent raised five marvelous children; she lived to witness the birth of 19 grandchildren.

Some would say that her brother John was the greatest of the Kennedys; for without his extraordinary judgment in the Cuban Missile Crisis, we almost certainly would have been consumed in a thermonuclear war. Others say that her brother Robert was the noblest of the Kennedys, for he brought this nation a sense of its own worth, in that short campaign of 1968, a summons that would not be heard again for 40 years – and yet could not be forgotten. Still others say that her brother Edward has been the most consistent champion of rights and opportunities in the family, and his record in the Senate is, beyond cavil, one of the greatest legislative accomplishments in the history of the Republic. And yet, there is Eunice, who not only moved us to liberate a scorned and feared minority: she led us to empower them.

Eunice saw that they should have the fullness of life – and to have it more abundantly. How God must smile upon her this day!