Questions for Kerry Kennedy (NY Times)

(...) In the preface, you depict Jesus as a kind of human rights activist.
I think he was. The Catholic Church in our country has a strong tradition of social-justice activism. It serves the immigrant community, opposes the death penalty and is one of the largest providers of health care in this country.

Are you concerned that Catholics have been leaving the ranks of the Democratic Party for a generation now, in favor of more conservative politics?
In this election, the fact that Joe Biden is a Catholic with a working-class background is going to play an important role in bringing Catholics who might otherwise vote Republican back to the fold.

Did you ask Biden to write an essay for your new book?
I did not, gosh darn it.

You’re the seventh of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s children?
Yes. There were so many of us, 11 in all. The time of day when there was quiet and serenity was every night when we gathered in my parents’ bedroom and knelt down together and prayed.

You were only 8 when your father was assassinated.
When I was younger, I had so many people in my family die. In my mind, heaven was as physical a place as home or school, and I knew that everyone I loved was together, enormously happy, and watching over me and awaiting my coming to this extraordinary place. In planes, I used to try to look behind the clouds to see if I saw an angel.

You supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, which meant going up against your cousin Caroline and your uncle Ted.
It’s the first time this has ever happened in my family, but now we are all enthusiastically behind Barack Obama.

Do you think Sarah Palin was chosen to capitalize on the girl power generated by Hillary?
I think that was part of it. But I think McCain was also trying to appeal to the religious right. She is an anti-abortion, born-again Christian who believes in banning library books and that going to war in Iraq is an act of God.

I think she appeals to the hockey-mom constituency as well. Isn’t hockey more of a red-state sport than soccer?
I myself am a soccer mom, a volleyball mom and a basketball mom.

Have you thought of running for office?
I’ve thought about it on several occasions, but Cara and Mariah are 13 and Michaela is 11, and as a single mother, I think that would be just too tough on our family. Their father is a politician.

You’re referring to Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York State, from whom you were very publicly divorced. Is that what led you to undertake a book on Catholicism?
I think Catholicism was a source of strength during that process and, interestingly, one of the reasons I stayed in a difficult marriage for 13 years. I believed that one should be married for life. That was my upbringing. Work on it. Make it work.

Not everything can be made to work.
I give it over to God. Thy will be done.

That sounds like a good ending for this interview.
But maybe that’s very unempowering to women. I don’t want to give the impression that you work and work and work, then you have no say and it’s all up to God. At a certain point, you have to make the decision to change your life.

Go to http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/magazine/14wwln-Q4-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin