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EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Kerry, Dodd Receive Communion at Papal Mass, Kennedy Refrains
LifeSite ^ | April 18, 2008 | John-Henry Westen

Posted on 04/18/2008 7:43:03 AM PDT by NYer

WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the papal Mass at Nationals Park this morning with 46,000 in attendance, pro-abortion Senators John Kerry and Chris Dodd presented themselves for and received Holy Communion.  Of note, pro-abortion Senator Ted Kennedy purposefully did not receive Communion.  Photos taken by Tom McFadden Director of Admissions at Christendom College and provided first to LifeSiteNews.com, show Kerry and Dodd receiving while Kennedy remains seated as his row leaves to receive Communion.

American Life League (ALL) President Judie Brown told LifeSiteNews.com that no pro-abortion politicians received Holy Communion directly from Pope Benedict during the Mass. ALL had taken out a full page ad warning Catholic pro-abortion politicians not to sacrilegiously receive the Eucharist. 

While the highest authorities in the Vatican and indeed the Pope himself have insisted that pro-abortion Catholic politicians be denied Holy Communion, several prominent US bishops with the leading of now-retired Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick have refused to follow such direction from Rome.

It seems from his actions today, Senator Kennedy is, at least in public, refraining from Communion and thus refusing to create what the Church calls public "scandal".

Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, speaking at a Catholic family conference in Ohio last November confirmed that pro-abortion politicians must be denied communion.  He referenced a 2004 letter on the subject sent by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who said that such politicians "must" be refused Communion (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040408.html).

Since becoming Pope, Benedict XVI has also addressed the subject.  In March 2007 the Pope warned Catholic pro-abortion politicians against receiving Communion. In the document on Holy Communion, called "Sacramentum Caritatis" or the Sacrament of Love, Benedict XVI gave Catholic politicians a biblical warning against receiving Communion unworthily.

In a section on "Eucharistic consistency", the Pope said that politicians must adhere to "non negotiable" values "such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms." He added, "Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature."

"There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist," he said referencing the Biblical passage 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.  That passage reads: "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.  But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice.  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031303.html ; )



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Worship
KEYWORDS: 110th; catholic; catholicpoliticians; dodd; eucharist; kennedy; kerry; papalvisit; pope
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1 posted on 04/18/2008 7:43:04 AM PDT by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...

Thank you Tom McFadden!


2 posted on 04/18/2008 7:44:39 AM PDT by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: NYer

Actually, I think this may be OK. Kerry changed his position to pro-life when he got in line, then changed it back as he was seated.


3 posted on 04/18/2008 7:45:38 AM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
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To: NYer

Finally I can say Kennedy did something right. I wish the others were denied.... as they should have been


4 posted on 04/18/2008 7:45:39 AM PDT by fml (So?)
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To: NYer

I think if I were a priest or deacon assigned to distributing Communion at the Mass I would have a pocket full of Necco wafers, and say “And this is a special one, just for you!”


5 posted on 04/18/2008 7:45:42 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (Not a newbie, I just wanted a new screen name.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

(I would also have some holy water to rinse my fingers off afterwrds, since I would still be distributing Communion.)


6 posted on 04/18/2008 7:46:28 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (Not a newbie, I just wanted a new screen name.)
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To: fml

I’m not sure Kenneddy was up to the long walk.


7 posted on 04/18/2008 7:46:49 AM PDT by Retired Greyhound
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To: NYer

Ted was just too lazy to walk all that way just to get the tiny wafer of unleavened bread. If it was a chalice filled with wine, however, he’d be first in line (and then ask for a refill).


8 posted on 04/18/2008 7:52:11 AM PDT by M203M4 (True Universal Suffrage: Pets of dead illegal-immigrant felons voting Democrat (twice))
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To: NYer
I am not Catholic.
That being said I know how we handle Communion in our congregation (it is between Christ and you - not the church).
So would someone expand on the request that pro-abortion people not participate in Communion and how that happens. Yes, I do believe that Catholics and Protestants (Evangelicals/Born Again Christians) celebrate Communion in basically the same way, with only slight nuanced differences.
9 posted on 04/18/2008 7:52:42 AM PDT by svcw (I reject your reality and substitute my own.)
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To: svcw
"So would someone expand on the request that pro-abortion people not participate in Communion and how that happens."

From the original post:

"There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist," he said referencing the Biblical passage 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. That passage reads: "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord."

10 posted on 04/18/2008 7:55:42 AM PDT by avacado
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To: NYer

Kerry is hiding what he does with the Host. creepy.


11 posted on 04/18/2008 7:56:10 AM PDT by Mercat (Let the redeemed of the Lord say so)
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To: NYer
Kerry looks like an absolute dork while he commits sacrilege.

I just gained a smidgen of respect for Fat Drunk Ted.

12 posted on 04/18/2008 7:56:58 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: avacado

Thanks.
I really missed that......


13 posted on 04/18/2008 7:57:50 AM PDT by svcw (I reject your reality and substitute my own.)
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To: NYer

As far as Kennedy is concerned, HE should be giving THE POPE communion.


14 posted on 04/18/2008 7:58:33 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: svcw
Yes, I do believe that Catholics and Protestants (Evangelicals/Born Again Christians) celebrate Communion in basically the same way, with only slight nuanced differences.

The mechanics may be similar but the theology is quite different. That picture of Kerry is an absolute abomination. Kennedy at least has the decency to refrain from heaping one sin upon another.

15 posted on 04/18/2008 7:59:11 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: fml

> Finally I can say Kennedy did something right. I wish the others were denied.... as they should have been

Informed self-interest, probably. He didn’t want to burst into flame, or be smitten by lightening bolts. Darkness doth abhor the Light.


16 posted on 04/18/2008 8:00:10 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: NYer
If people like Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, et al would remember their Catholicism they would realize that the Pope speaks as God, and they would live in the rule of His word, and not in the popular laws man created. They would recognize that Pope Benedict XVI is the living representative of God on earth, and he is re-emphasizing the words and rules handed down from Him to Moses, and through Jesus to Peter and to each successive Pope who each has had the responsibility to remind us not sway from God's rules no matter what the popular culture seems to be advocating or why, or how “science” defines when life begins.

Pope Benedict XVI has always taken God's words totally literally. In the areas of abortion, birth control, and the problem of priests abusing children he will stand steadfast in the word of God and no mortal will make him accept less than what God spoke in the Ten Commandments and through Jesus.

If Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, and other Catholics-in-name-only don't realize that God is speaking directly to them through Pope Benedict when he does not permit communion be administered to those advocates of abortion and birth control, then they have made a conscious decision to ignore God and listen to the devil and the people through whom the devil speaks and has influenced. They might want to cloud their decisions to acquiesce to public pressure based on the rationales of men, but it is just their desire to hold political office and remain “popular” that has become more important than what they know to be what God wants.

Pope Benedict XVI, through his steadfast commitment to uphold God’s rules and by his action to exclude pro-abortion supporters is quite strongly reminding them they will never gain “popularity” with God for turning away from the laws and standards He set. Benedict is acknowledging the obvious: that they are openly succumbing to the temptations of self-gratification for their own mortal agendas and careers. And every time they attend a Mass and receive Communion they are flagrantly repeating the sin that not only scars their souls, and are also making an arrogant statement that they do not consider God’s rules important, nor the lives of the aborted children lovingly created by God.

These politicians and abortion supporters will pay in a way that will be far worse than loosing an election here on earth. Whatever success they have in this life, and no matter how they have tried to justify their decisions and actions, God will not forget the millions of lives they have allowed to be destroyed just so they could satisfy their own egos and personal desires for worldly acclaim.

They might always have supporters on earth and we might not witness their demise, or see the punishment they will face, but we can hold onto the knowledge that in the end God has the final judgment. On the day these people stand before Him, (no matter how many times they have kissed the Pope’s ring, or spoken to a Pope, or attended a Mass) God will not be influenced by any political action group, or lobbyist, or popular movement promulgated by those who have found it easier and advantageous to their own goals to destroy a life and succumb to the devil’s desires. When we do not respect the gift of life that God blessed us with, there is no loophole to slide through into Heaven.

17 posted on 04/18/2008 8:00:32 AM PDT by CitizenM ("An excuse is worse than an lie, because an excuse is a lie hidden." Pope John Paul, II)
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To: NYer
There are two ways to look at this. One, the pope giving communion to politicians who directly violate tenants of the Church (supporting abortion), and two, Kennedy refusing to take communion. Frankly, I doubt Kennedy was respecting what the church has said about abortion supporters.
18 posted on 04/18/2008 8:04:14 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: mnehrling

Maybe he heard there was no alcohol in the wine?


19 posted on 04/18/2008 8:06:39 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: svcw

Big difference in the Communion between Catholics and Protestants. Not “nuanced”

Do some research.


20 posted on 04/18/2008 8:08:40 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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