Kennedy clashes with Tobin over issue

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Thomas Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, has made a career out of putting politicians in his cross hairs, but his latest battle over abortion threatens to spiritually exile Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a son of the nation’s most famous Roman Catholic family.

Their feud over a proposal expanding the nation’s health- insurance system has escalated to the point where Bishop 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.

Bishop Tobin led the Diocese of Youngstown from 1996 to 2005.

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.

“I don’t think there’s any winner here,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a church observer and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “I think this is the kind of thing that would be better discussed between a member of Congress and his bishop behind closed doors.”

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. Fewer than 20 of the roughly 200 bishops overseeing U.S. dioceses have threatened to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion, Father Reese said.

“I don’t think you’ll find widespread support among Catholics for this,” he said.

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.

Kennedy stumbled into the conflict last month when in an interview with CNSNews.com he publicly criticized the nation’s Catholic bishops for threatening to oppose a reform of the health-care system — a goal the church supports — unless it included tighter restrictions on publicly financed abortion.

It was a loaded statement by a congressman representing the most heavily Roman Catholic state. And it drew the attention of Bishop Tobin, who in his four years in Providence has criticized Gov. Don Carcieri for launching a crackdown on illegal immigrants, bashed the state’s attorney general for supporting gay marriage and excoriated Giuliani over his abortion stance.

An angry Bishop Tobin fired back, calling Kennedy ignorant of church policy. He asked for an apology and a meeting.

In a letter, Kennedy agreed to a sit-down and said his Catholic faith is founded on the principles of feeding the hungry, clothing the poor and caring for the less fortunate. Kennedy voted against an amendment tightening abortion restrictions in a Democratic health-care plan, but he voted in favor of the overall proposal that included those restrictions.

Their planned meeting fell apart Monday. The bishop called it a mutual decision, but Kennedy accused Tobin of reneging on an agreement to stop discussing his faith publicly.