A month of harsh words between US Congressman Patrick Kennedy and Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin escalated when the bishop acknowledged asking Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion because of the Democratic lawmaker’s support for abortion rights.
The bishop’s attempt to publicly shame Kennedy comes just a few months after the death of his father, Senator Edward Kennedy. Tobin said in an interview on Sunday that he’s praying for the younger Kennedy, who has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse, and said Kennedy has been acting “erratically.”
“He attacked the church, he attacked the position of the church on healthcare, on abortion, on funding, and that required that I respond. I don’t go out looking for these guys. I don’t go out picking these fights,” Tobin said on Sunday.
Their dispute began in October when Kennedy criticized the country’s Catholic bishops for threatening to oppose an overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system unless lawmakers included tighter restrictions on abortion, which have since been added to the House version of the bill. Tobin said he felt Kennedy made an unprovoked attack on the church and demanded an apology.
Since then, their feud has been played out in public. Tobin, who has said he might have gone into politics were he not ordained, has written sharp public letters questioning Kennedy’s faith and saying his position is scandalous and unacceptable to the church. Kennedy has said his disagreement with the church hierarchy does not make him any less of a Catholic.
Two weeks ago, after a planned meeting between the two fell through, Kennedy said he wanted to stop discussing his faith in public, but then he told the Providence Journal in a story published on Sunday that Tobin instructed him not to receive Communion. He also claimed the bishop had told diocesan priests not to give him Communion. Kennedy and his spokespeople did not return repeated requests seeking comment.
Tobin said he wrote to Kennedy in February 2007 asking him not to receive Communion, but never formally banned Kennedy from receiving Communion or instructed any priest not to give it to him.
Kennedy said this month that he receives Communion, but he did not say whether his priest is in the Diocese of Providence. Tobin only has authority over priests in Rhode Island.
The bishop said he would probably not personally give Kennedy Communion and might have “a little conversation” with any priest who gave Kennedy the sacrament.
Tobin said his 2007 request was prompted by a statement in December 2006 from the nation’s Catholic bishops, which said believers who knowingly and consistently break with church teachings on moral issues, such as abortion, should refrain from Communion, a central focus of Roman Catholic worship.
Tobin would not say on Sunday whether he had sent similar letters to other pro-choice Catholic politicians.
Only a few US bishops have said they would outright deny Holy Communion to a Catholic lawmaker who supports policies that violate church teaching.
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