RI Bishop Disses Kennedy Over Pro-Choice Stance

Spat over Patrick's position on abortion escalates
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 22, 2009 8:23 AM CST
RI Bishop Disses Kennedy Over Pro-Choice Stance
In this Sept. 9, 2009 file photo, sons of Teddy Kennedy, Ted Jr, left, and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, listen to President Obama's speech on health care before a joint session of Congress.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Health care reform, the cause of his father's life, has made Rep. Patrick Kennedy persona non grata in his Rhode Island parish—thanks to the furor over publicly funded abortion. As the debate rages, Bishop Thomas Tobin has told the only public servant remaining in America's most famous Catholic family not to receive communion because of his pro-choice stance, Kennedy tells the Providence Journal.

In the rare step, Tobin denied Ted Kennedy's youngest communion because "I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official ," says Kennedy, who admits "personal feelings of disappointment" over the ban. The snub is the latest in escalating public sniping between the two.
(More Patrick Kennedy stories.)

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