Kennedy banned from Communion over abortion stance

A Roman Catholic bishop in the US has banned Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the Church, because of the congressman’s support for abortion rights, Mr Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published today.

The decision by Bishop Thomas Tobin significantly escalates a bitter dispute between the prelate, and Mr 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,” Mr Kennedy told the The Providence Journal in Rhode Island in an interview conducted on Friday.

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

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

Mr Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him “that 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 declined 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 Mr Kennedy not to receive Communion. But the bishop’s office cast doubt on Mr Kennedy’s related assertion about instructions to state priests.

“Bishop Tobin has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese,” spokesman Michael K. Guilfoyle told the paper in an e-mailed statement.

Mr 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 Mr 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 the Eucharist.”

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

Mr Kennedy voted against an amendment to a Democratic health care plan sought by the bishops. But he voted in favour of a health care plan that included the amendment he opposed.

Bishop Tobin, the spiritual leader of the most heavily 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,” Mr Kennedy wrote in a letter to Bishop Tobin, 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, Mr 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,” Bishop Tobin wrote.