Kennedy banned from Communion over stance on abortion

A PROMINENT Roman Catholic bishop in the US has banned congressman Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the Church, because of the latter’s support for abortion rights, Kennedy has claimed.

The decision by Bishop Thomas Tobin significantly escalates a bitter dispute between the prelate and Kennedy, a son of the most famous US Roman Catholic political family.

“The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy told The Providence Journal in Rhode Island.