In her innermost thoughts, a widowed woman contemplates committing suicide months after her husband’s murder. She confesses these feelings and others to a trusted friend, a priest, and asks whether or not God would forgive her. Later, after her piercing grief has dulled into a constant ache, she thanks him for his support.
This story is of no consequence to anyone but a woman and her priest-unless, of course, that woman happened to be a Kennedy, and her husband was President John F. Kennedy. If that’s the case, then the rest of the world is understandably interested. But does that justify the publication of the correspondence between Mrs. Kennedy and her priest?
Last week, the Georgetown library released to the public the personal correspondence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis with the late Rev. Richard McSorely, S.J., a Georgetown priest. McSorely’s estate donated the documents to the University after his death last year. McSorley, who founded Georgetown’s Center for Peace Studies during his tenure on the Hilltop, was a close friend of Kennedy for many years.
This is not the first time Kennedy’s conversations with McSorely have been incorporated into the historical record. McSorely has already been criticized for granting author Thomas Maier access to his conversations with Jackie Kennedy. Maier’s new book, The Kennedys, was published earlier this fall; Maier’s discussion of Jackie’s spiritual crisis after the assassination of her husband is primarily based on her conversations with McSorely. Close friends and representatives of other Kennedys have decried such disclosure of Jackie’s interaction with McSorely.
Representatives of the University have little to say about the issue-Maier dealt with the legality of the release of the documents. But the University should have demonstrated more taste. The records will undoubtedly contribute to historical accuracy, but history’s prying eye does not naturally trump spiritual confidences. The idea is analogous to the confidence between attorney and client or physician and patient. One would think that a Catholic school would have recognized this bond and respected it. As the Rev. John Paris, Walsh Professor of Bioethics at Boston College, told the Washington Post: “The disclosure of this was wrong, absolutely wrong.”
