Most Holy Father,
I asked President Obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me and I am so deeply grateful to him.
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I pray that you have all of God's blessings as you lead our church and inspire our world during challenging times.
I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer over a year ago and although I am undergoing treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me.
I am 77-years-old and preparing for the next passage of life.
I've been blessed to be part of a wonderful family and both my parents, specifically my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the center of our lives.
That gift of faith has sustained and nurtured and provided solace to me in the darkest hours. I know that i have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith I have tried to right my past.
I want you to know, your Holiness, that in my 50 years of elected office I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I've worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I've opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a U.S. Senator.
I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life.
I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I'll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.
I've always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness. And though I have fallen short through human failings I've never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith.
I continue to pray for God's blessings on you and on our church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.
-EMK
However grave as some of the disagreements we may have had with the late Senator Ted Kennedy, at least on paper, he defended Catholics and their church from assaults on our religious freedom and called for strong conscience clauses. If he were alive today, I suspect we might not be dealing with the uproar as we have seen over the past few weeks.
Once in American politics, faithful Roman Catholic politicians existed on both sides of the aisle and they would cross party lines on matters that deserved their support as faithful Christians. Today, the Democratic Party has become relentlessly and intolerably secular, with little room for people of faith. Senior Catholic "leaders" within the current federal government run the gamut from weak men like Joe Biden who cannot muster the fortitude and credibility to effectively fight for their fellow adherents, to Kathleen Sibelius, a clearly disgruntled Catholic trying to act out against her own church for perceived or real grievances. Our own situation in Massachusetts is not much better, with prominent Catholics like MassDem Chair John Walsh not even paying a fig leaf of respect to the idea of religious freedom.
Ted Kennedy, whether we Republicans like it or not, was a leader. Someone who would stand up when it was unpopular and fight for what he thought was right whether anyone had his back or not. On this issue we could have used his support.
As politicians like Elizabeth Warren and journalists like Margery Eagan raise their ire at religious Catholics and those defending their right to conscience like Scott Brown, I think it is important to remember Ted Kennedy's 2009 letter to Pope Benedict XVI: 
