Tobin reveals letter to Kennedy
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island said Sunday that he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy in a 2007 letter to stop receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, because of the congressman’s public stance on moral issues.
Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.
Kennedy did not say where or how he received those instructions. He declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop’s request.
“The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.
Kennedy said the bishop had 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,” particularly on abortion.
Tobin said in a statement Sunday that he “has never addressed matters relative to public officials’ receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese.”
The outspoken prelate, who led the Youngstown diocese from 1996 to 2005, and Kennedy, a son of the nation’s most famous Roman Catholic family, have feuded since Kennedy in an interview last month criticized Roman Catholic church leaders for threatening to oppose an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system unless it included tighter restrictions on abortion.
Kennedy voted against an amendment tightening abortion restrictions that was sought by the bishops. But he voted in favor of a health-care plan that included the amendment he opposed.
Tobin urged Kennedy not to receive Communion in a February 2007 letter, a portion of which was released publicly by Tobin’s office Sunday.
“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,” Tobin wrote.
It was not immediately clear whether Tobin and Kennedy spoke further about the request. Kennedy spokeswoman Kerrie Bennett did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the letter.