Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:42:22 +0000 From: Gabe Menezes <[email protected]>
*US Congressman Refused Communion for Supporting Abortion* The nephew of ex-president John F. Kennedy, a US lawmaker, has been barred from receiving communion at his Catholic church due to his support for abortion rights, a newspaper reported. US Representative Patrick Kennedy, son of the late senator Edward Kennedy, was told of the move by Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, according to The Providence Journal newspaper in the US state of Rhode Island. Kennedy represents a district in Rhode Island in the US Congress. The bishop instructed me not to take communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me communion, the paper quotes Kennedy as saying in a telephone interview. Mario observes: It's about time a Catholic Bishop stood up to such politicians who openly defy the Catholic Church's teachings on the sanctity of innocent life and still want to enjoy the social and political benefits of membership in the Church. They can leave the Church and then support whatever they want to. Gabe wrote: What about divorced and remarried people? Are they barred from the sacraments? Mario responds: It depends on whether they got their previous marriage anulled before they remarried.
