Abortion, a Kennedy and a Catholic communion conundrum
A new row has flared in the Catholic ranks of the U.S. abortion wars, this one involving a member of America’s most famous Catholic political family and a bishop. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has claimed that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin has slapped a communion ban on him for his support for abortion rights.
“The bishop instructed me not to take communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me communion,” the Rhode Island Democrat was quoted as saying this week in the Providence Journal.
On the pages of the same paper the bishop fired back, asserting that it was a “request,” not an instruction. “If he took it as an instruction, so be it, but it was really a request,” the bishop was quoted as saying.
The request was apparently made back in 2007 but the trigger for the most recent twist in the saga seems to have been Kennedy’s comments to CNSNews.com in October that the Catholic Church was fanning “the flames of dissent and discord” by insisting that healthcare reform legislation include explicit bans on funding for abortion.
Such a provision was included in the House version of the bill that narrowly passed but not in the one under consideration in the Senate. The stakes could hardly be higher as an overhaul of America’s healthcare system is President Barack Obama’s top domestic agenda.
The whole issue has highlighted divisions in the U.S. Democratic Party, which has regained control of Congress and expanded its majorities there in the last two election cycles by widening its tent to include moderates and conservatives. Some of these new Democrats oppose abortion rights, making them an awkward fit in a party that has long supported them.
This also seems to be a never-ending dilemma for the U.S. Catholic Church and one which haunted John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004 — should it distribute communion or not to public figures who support abortion rights, given the Church’s teaching that abortion is the taking of innocent life and therefore a grave evil.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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“Saying that a sinner does not deserve communion is like saying a sick person does not deserve a doctor.In any event. The communion of the Church is a symbolic ritual.” No one said a sinner does not deserve communion. Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that communion forgives one’s venial sins and preserves him from grave sin (1416). The church also states that anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace or must not receive communion until he receives absolution. This is what we as Catholics believe… forgiveness of sins through the sacrament of reconciliation. (1415) With regard to communion being a symbolic ritual, Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ in a “true, real and substantial manner… with his soul and his divinity. (1413) In other words, once consecrated, the bread becomes the actual Body of Christ. For other Christian religions it may be a symbol, but to us Catholics it’s the real thing.