Catholic Bishop Responds to Democrat Congressman Patrick Kennedy
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Congressman Patrick Kenneday
Former president John F. Kennedy´s nephew and son of the late senator Edward Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, has been barred from receiving communion at his Catholic church due to his support for abortion rights, a newspaper reported Sunday.
US Representative Patrick Kennedy was told of the move by Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, according to The Providence Journal newspaper in the US state of Rhode Island.
In a strong response to Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s public revelation that he has been banned from Communion for his stand on abortion, the Bishop of Rhode Island, Thomas Tobin, expressed his “disappointment” and “surprise” at Kennedy’s decision to make public a matter that was private and aimed at his spiritual well-being.
Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island) said to the local press that “the bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion.”
Kennedy also said that Bishop Tobin allegedly explained the penalty by telling him “that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official.”
The congressman declined to say whether he has obeyed the Bishop’s request.
Later in the day, Bishop Tobin issued a statement clarifying the terms of his decision.
“I am disappointed and really surprised that Congressman Patrick Kennedy has chosen to reopen the public discussion about his practice of the faith and his reception of Holy Communion. This comes almost two weeks after the Congressman indicated to local media that he would no longer comment publicly on his faith or his relationship with the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tobin writes.
Bishop Tobin said that on February 21, 2007, he wrote to Congressman Kennedy stating that “in light of the Church’s clear teaching, and your consistent actions, therefore, I believe it is inappropriate for you to be receiving Holy Communion and I now ask respectfully that you refrain from doing so.
“My request came in light of the new statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that said, ‘If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definite teachings on moral issues, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church. Reception of Holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the Eucharistic celebration, so that he or she should refrain.’”
In the same letter, Bishop Tobin wrote to Congressman Kennedy: “I am writing to you personally and confidentially as a pastor addressing a member of his flock . . . At the present time I have no need or intention to make this a public issue.”
Bishop Tobin explains that he has “no desire” to discuss Congressman Kennedy’s spiritual life in public.
“At the same time, I will absolutely respond publicly and strongly whenever he attacks the Catholic Church, misrepresents the teachings of the Church, or issues inaccurate statements about my pastoral ministry.”
Patrick Kennedy is the same person who crashed his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill in May 2006 and later alleged that he was disoriented because some kind of medication.
The Catholic Church has insisted that Catholics should not be misled by the public statements and positions of pro-abortion politicians who identify themselves as Catholics.
According to the Catholic Church, some of them erroneously suggest that Church teaching on abortion is open for debate. The Catholic Church has taught consistently and clearly that procured abortion is gravely contrary to the moral law.
The Americano / Agencies
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Is is a great move by the Catholic church in general that has been long in coming. Kudos to Bishop Tobin. Politicians always try to get their way and have it both ways as to deceive their voters, but when it comes to moral beliefs there are no gray areas. Either you believe or you do not. The left hates absolutes and always prefers to live in a “relative” utopia where you can change your beliefs as much as you do you shorts. This is why I personally do not believe in so called moderates, either you have a moral compass and live by it or you don’t. Reading the moral wind instruments to decide on which side to vote, screams of not really having any defined moral beliefs. Millions of dollars in pork as negotiated this past weekend for a moral vote on Health care reform by the Louisiana senator makes my point. Moderates have no values, and it sounds like they also have a price for which they will sell their souls.