Another chapter in the story of America’s most famous political family unfolded this week at Lauinger Library as it unveiled to the general public the personal correspondence of Jaqueline Kennedy with a Georgetown priest. Within the writings, a recently widowed Kennedy ponders suicide, solitude, and the meaning of the Catholic faith.
This previously uncovered side of the former First Lady reveals itself in the private letters she exchanged with the late Rev. Richard McSorley, S.J., which were donated to the library’s Special Collections over the course of several years and became available for public viewing on Wednesday.
Written in the spring of 1964, several months after the assassination of her husband, her frank letters and the personal observations of McSorley reflect attempts by both to come to grips with a piercing tragedy. At one point, she writes, “Do you think God would separate me from my husband if I killed myself?”
According to Kennedy scholar Thomas Maier, the letters provide a new perspective on an oft-studied topic. “For forty years we have remembered Jackie Kennedy as a courageous woman who presided over her husband’s funeral,” he said. “These documents show the personal side of her life.”
Maier, who used the documents in his recently completed book, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings, was struck by Kennedy’s faith in traditional Catholic beliefs. It is part of a larger religious side of the family, he said, that has not been publicly documented.
“This exchange between Jackie Kennedy and a Georgetown priest gets to the heart of some of the most fundamental questions of human existence. She’s reaching out to religion at the most terrible moment in her life,” he said.
McSorley, famous for his founding of a peace studies program at Georgetown and his protests against the Vietnam War, passed away last year. He was known as a friend of Kennedy.
He met often with the First Lady in April and May of 1964 to play tennis and discuss her questions about Catholicism and morality. Yet even as he became good friends with her, he did not mention this special relationship to others. “I don’t think that he wanted to be seen a chaplain for the rich and famous,” said Colman McCarthy, an adjunct professor at Georgetown and a friend of the late priest .
The opening of the documents to the public was announced on Wednesday, at a press conference in Lauinger Library. According to University Librarian Artemis Kirk, now that McSorley has passed away and the documents have been properly archived, any interested students or Kennedy scholars can view them in the Special Collections room.
