The most important section of Anne Hendershott's article does not concern Caroline Kennedy, however.  Instead, she documents a strategic meeting in the 1970s when the Kennedy family met with liberal Catholic theologians to formulate a mechanism for changing their position on abortion -- and thus for taking the position directly opposed by their church.

Look carefully at Hendershott's narrative:

At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a "clear conscience."

The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book "The Birth of Bioethics" (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.

Some of these names are well known, even to non-Catholics.  Robert Drinan served in the U.S. Congress from 1971 to 1981, when Pope John Paul II ordered all ordained priests to refrain from electoral politics.  Drinan was so pro-abortion that he opposed the partial-birth abortion ban until ordered by superiors to drop his opposition.  Charles Curran, an ethicist and moral theologian, was later removed from the faculty of the Catholic University in America for his views in opposition to the church's teaching and authority.  He currently teaches at Southern Methodist University.

Hendershott provides more details of the meeting at Hyannisport:

Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by the position of another Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position that "distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue." It was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians "might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order."

Father Milhaven later recalled the Hyannisport meeting during a 1984 breakfast briefing of Catholics for a Free Choice: "The theologians worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the evening we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though the theologians disagreed on many a point, they all concurred on certain basics . . . and that was that a Catholic politician could in good conscience vote in favor of abortion.

This is a chilling account of a meeting that, without any doubt, contributed to the deaths of countless unborn babies.  At this meeting the Kennedy family was handed a theological rationale that served as political cover.  It was a rationale that allowed this powerful family to put its influence in service of abortion rights, even as family members continued to claim identity as members of their church.

There are important lessons here, to be sure.  One lesson must be this:  There will be theologians who seem ever ready to find a way to subvert the teachings of their church, even as they seek to remain in its employ and trust.  The second lesson is like unto the first:  There will ever be politicians who are looking for political cover, and will gladly receive this cover from those willing to subvert their church's teaching.  These lessons are by no means limited to the Roman Catholic Church.

We are all in Anne Hendershott's debt for her documentation of this sad spectacle.  The warning represented by this historical account is troubling to see, but impossible to miss.

In addition to being one of Salem’s nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and recognized as one of America’s leading theologians and cultural commentators. Contact Dr. Mohler at mail@albertmohler.com.