CNN iReport

After months of unsympathetic words between D-Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, the dispute has escalated to a boiling point.

Speaking in support of a public option for a proposed universal health care plan, Kennedy told Catholic News Service that he found it confusing that the church would oppose the health insurance plan.

“I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person - that right now we have 50 million people who are uninsured,’’ Kennedy said.

He added: “You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people life-saving health care? I thought they were pro-life? If the church is pro-life, then they ought to be for health care reform, because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive”.

“So this is an absolute red herring, and I don’t think that it does anything but to fan the flames of dissent and discord, and I don’t think it’s productive at all.’’

Now Bishop Tobin wants Kennedy to apologize for his “unprovoked attack on the church”. "The point is, because of his obstinate ... public support of abortion, which is clearly contrary to an essential teaching of the church of a matter of critical morality ... he is then not properly prepared to receive Holy Communion," Tobin said in an interview Sunday. "No one has a right to receive Holy Communion."

Bishop Tobin said he wrote Rep. Kennedy in February 2007 and asked him not to receive Communion because of his voting record supporting abortion rights.

Bishop Tobin said that believers who “knowingly and consistently break with church teachings on moral issues such as abortion should refrain from Communion, the focus of Roman Catholic worship.”

That’s outrageous… What about pedophiles in the Catholic church? Are these individuals allowed to receive communion?

Did they “knowingly and consistently break with church teachings on moral issues” … Only Asking.

The Bishop explained the church’s stance, saying that while the church supports health care overhaul, “we are adamantly opposed to health care legislation that threatens the life of unborn children, requires taxpayers to pay for abortion, rations health care, or compromises the conscience of individuals.

Is Bishop Tobin using "communion" and religion as a “weapon” to

force favorable legislation?

Is the Roman Catholic Church flexing its power to influence elected officials?

Should Rep. Kennedy serve the church or serve his constituency... the people that elected him to office?

Should Rep. Kennedy follow the law of Country or the laws of the Catholic Church?

Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?

Only asking...

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