Reacting to criticism from the Kennedy family, the head of Georgetown’s Jesuit community announced last Wednesday that the University library had publicly exhibited the correspondence between a Georgetown priest and Jacqueline Kennedy “by mistake” and said that he had apologized to the family on behalf of the University.
Georgetown drew media attention last month when it opened the papers to viewing by the general public. The diary entries and private letters of the recently deceased Rev. Richard McSorley, S.J., written in the months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, revealed what many saw as a new face of Kennedy, contemplating suicide and the most basic questions of the Catholic faith.
The move drew criticism as well. According to a spokesperson, Senator Edward Kennedy(D-Mass.) questioned the morality of releasing such private documents to the general public. He said that he was especially disappointed by what he saw as a lack of respect for the private relationship between priest and parishioner, as reported by the Associated Press.
The head of the Jesuit Community at Georgetown, Rev. Brian McDermott S.J., said that he felt compelled to write a personal apology to Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the only living descendent of Jaqueline and John Kennedy.
University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille echoed this sentiment when describing the official position of the university. “We meant no disrespect to any individual in making this information available. As a Catholic and Jesuit University we deeply respect the meaningful role that a priest can play in the private lives of individuals,” she said.
On Nov. 12, Lauinger Library held a press conference in which it invited Kennedy scholar and author Thomas Maier to talk about the significance of the papers in his new book, The Kennedy’s: America’s Emerald Kings.
At the time of the press conference, Kirk said that the documents were fully available for viewing by the greater Georgetown community. McDermott, however, was reported to have said that he has not yet made a decision concerning the future exhibition of the papers. Both Bataille and Artemis Kirk, University Librarian, recently characterized the release of the documents at the press conference as a special “one-time occurrence.”
Earlier this month, Maier said that he understood the personal nature of the documents. “Clearly Jackie would not have wanted these documents known,” he said. However, he defended the decision to release them. “Fr. McSorley had an eye towards history and kept these documents for over forty years-Much of history is written off these kinds of diaries and letters,” he said.
