In a private dispute over abortion that has now gone public, Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop has told Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion. This bitter battle has revealed a substantial divide among Catholics over how politicians reconcile their faith with their public duties.
In a statement issued Sunday, Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin said he told Kennedy in February 2007 that it would be “inappropriate” for him to continue receiving the fundamental Catholic sacrament, “and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so.” But for reasons unknown, Tobin says he is troubled Kennedy decided in 2009 to make their dispute public. Apparently their fight escalated shortly after the death of Kennedy’s father, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and came to a head on the 46th anniversary of the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy. “He attacked the church, he attacked the position of the church on health care, on abortion, on funding,” Tobin said. “And that required that I respond. I don’t go out looking for these guys. I don’t go out picking these fights.”
In an interview published Sunday, Patrick Kennedy told the Providence Journal that Tobin had barred him from receiving communion and instructed priests in the diocese not to administer the sacrament “because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official.” Tobin rebutted that his advice to the congressman was “pastoral and confidential,” and he was surprised that Kennedy chose to discuss it publicly. “I am disappointed that the congressman would make public my request of nearly three years ago that sought to provide solely for his spiritual well-being.“
