The AP and other news sources are reporting that Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) has been told by his bishop that he should not take communion in the Catholic Church because Rep. Kennedy favors abortion rights as a matter of law.
Their feud over a proposal expanding the nation's health insurance system has escalated to the point where Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly questioned Kennedy's faith and membership in the church and said he should not receive communion, the central sacrament in Catholic worship.
It's an uncomfortable tangle of faith and politics for a congressman whose uncle John F. Kennedy was elected the first Roman Catholic president in 1960 after declaring to wary Protestants that he did not speak for his church on public matters, and that the church did not speak for him.
Setting aside the Catholic Church getting involved in political questions -- tax-exempt religions should not involve themselves in matters of legislation -- the Church has every right to deny Rep. Kennedy the chance to take communion.
And if that upsets Mr. Kennedy, then he should quit that Church and join one he feels more welcome in.
Patrick Kennedy is among several Catholic politicians to clash with their bishops over abortion, which the church considers a paramount moral evil not open for negotiation.
It's okay for Mafia dons to go to that Church. Just not okay for someone who believes in abortion rights.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., has said that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights, should stop taking communion until she changes her stance.
Former Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has said he would withhold communion from politicians who support abortion, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican who also ran afoul of the church because he is divorced.
Thank god I'm an athiest.
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