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By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said he was “not going to dignify with an answer” Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin’s public comments that Kennedy could not be a good Catholic and still support abortion rights. Kennedy called those comments “unfortunate,” and said, “I’m not going to engage [in] this anymore.”
Kennedy said he also finds it “very disconcerting” that Bishop Tobin will not agree to keep private the discussion of Kennedy’s faith, and that is why his scheduled meeting with the bishop Thursday has been postponed.
In his letter, Bishop Tobin said he was not sure whether Kennedy fulfills “the basic requirements of being a Catholic,” and said that Catholicism involves much more than being baptized into the faith, family ties or cultural heritage. He called Kennedy’s “rejection of the Church’s teaching on abortion … a deliberate and obstinate act of the will: a conscious decision that you’ve reaffirmed on many occasions,” and a position that is “unacceptable to the Church, and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the Church.”
Kennedy said yesterday that he has a pastor, and “I have my sacraments through that pastor. I have sought the sacraments of reconciliation and Communion and all the rest.” He said he preferred to keep his pastor’s name private.
Bishop Tobin
Bishop Tobin requested that Kennedy “enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance,” and offered to help Kennedy as he “travels the road of faith.”
His comments were the latest in a series of sharp exchanges during the past few weeks between Kennedy and the bishop. They started when Kennedy attacked the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion-related aspects of the House bill to overhaul the country’s health-care system.
Kennedy said, “I had initially agreed to a meeting with him [Thursday], provided we would not debate this in public in terms of my personal faith, but unfortunately, he hasn’t kept to that agreement, and that’s very disconcerting to me.” But he also said he expects to meet with the bishop, if matters of faith will be kept “between us.”
The bill contained an abortion provision that Kennedy had opposed when the amendment came up for a vote: Langevin had voted for it, after his and others’ efforts at compromise language failed. The provision prohibits women insured under the public option, or who obtain federal health insurance tax credits, from purchasing abortion insurance. Kennedy said — and Langevin echoed Tuesday — that they did not want to see a single issue such as the abortion provision derail health-care reform.
Kennedy accused the church of “spinning” his position after he criticized the U.S. Catholic bishops because they said that they would oppose the health-care reform bills pending in Congress if they did not explicitly deny federal funding for abortion.
