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.

Church law permits Bishop Tobin to ban Kennedy from receiving Communion within the Diocese of Providence, which he leads, but he cannot stop Kennedy from receiving Communion elsewhere. Kennedy represents constituents from Rhode Island in Congress.

It was unclear whether bishops overseeing Washington and Massachusetts, where Kennedy’s family has a seaside compound, would issue similar bans.

Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him “I am not a good, practising Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official,” particularly on abortion.

He declined to say when or how Bishop Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he alsodeclined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop’s injunction.

The paper said the bishop’s spokesman declined to address the question of whether he had told Kennedy not to receive Communion, but the bishop’s office cast doubt on Kennedy’s related assertion about instructions to state priests.

Kennedy could appeal the decision to officials in the Vatican, but the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is unlikely to overturn a bishop, said Michael Sean Winters, a Church observer and author of Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats.

“It’s really bad theology,” said Winters, who opposes abortion. “You’re turning the altar rail into a battle field, a political battlefield no less, and it does a disservice to theEucharist.”

The dispute between the two men began in October when Kennedy in aCNSNews.com interview criticised US Catholic bishops for threatening to oppose a massive expansion of the healthcare system unless it included tighter restrictions on federally funded abortion.

Kennedy voted against an amendment to a Democratic healthcare plan sought by the bishops.

However, he voted in favour of a healthcare plan that included the amendment he opposed.

Bishop Tobin, the spiritual leader of the staunchly Roman Catholic state, demanded an apology from Kennedy after learning of his remarks and requested a meeting.

“While I greatly respect the Catholic Church and its leaders, like many Rhode Islanders, the fact that I disagree with the hierarchy of the Church on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic,” Kennedy wrote in a letter to the bishop, agreeing to a sit-down. “I embrace my faith which acknowledges the existence of an imperfect humanity.”

Their meeting fell apart. While Bishop Tobin called it a mutual decision, Kennedy accused Bishop Tobin of failing to abide by an agreement to stop discussing the congressman’s faith publicly.

Bishop Tobin followed up with a biting public letter published in a diocesan newspaper. “Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to an ‘imperfect humanity‘. Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your Communion with the Church.”