Posted by
Billy on Monday, November 16, 2009 12:35:51 PM
(Below is part of a story from the New York Times.)
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island was to meet Thursday with Thomas J. Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, and perhaps start healing a bitter rift over whether health care legislation now before Congress should restrict abortion coverage.
Instead, they postponed the meeting, and Bishop Tobin stepped up his public rebuke of Mr. Kennedy, accusing him Wednesday of “false advertising” for describing himself as a Catholic and saying he should not receive holy communion because he supports using taxpayer money for abortions.
“If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things,” Bishop Tobin said on WPRO, a Providence radio station. “If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has lobbied forcefully against including federal financing for abortion in the health care legislation, and Bishop Tobin, who has led the Catholic Church in Rhode Island since 2005, has been a vocal participant.
(While I believe things like this are best handled behind doors. There is a point to made about faith here. When you and I join a faith or church we can't pick what we like about it and reject what we don't like about it. I am follower of Jesus which means I believe the Bible is God's word. I can't just accept the part of the Bible that talks about a loving God and heaven but I must also accept what the book teaches about sin and hell. )