Kerry Is Given Communion Despite Stand on Abortion

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry received Communion at a Roman Catholic Mass here Saturday evening as a supportive congregation looked on, one day after a top Vatican official said politicians who supported abortion rights -- as Kerry does -- should not be given the sacrament.

Despite Friday’s pronouncement by Cardinal Francis Arinze, American bishops may make their own judgments on the issue. The Paulist Center’s Father Joe Ciccone paid no heed to the admonition from Rome.

Kerry received Communion with about 120 other worshipers at the center’s 6 p.m. Mass, which he attended with his aides, a Secret Service detail and a handful of members of the media. Afterward, several parishioners shook the Massachusetts senator’s hand. Others told him: “We’re with you.”

The center is known for its nontraditional approach to worship and programs, including its support groups for divorced Catholics and for gays and lesbians.

The Catholic Church’s fissure over the issue of abortion had been thrown into high relief a day earlier, when Arinze condemned politicians who supported abortion rights just hours before Kerry told a cheering throng in Washington that he believed women’s access to the procedure should be protected.

Kerry, a lifelong Catholic and former altar boy, visited the church on a day away from the campaign trail. Earlier Saturday he visited his doctor, who reportedly said that Kerry was healing nicely from recent surgery to repair a torn shoulder tendon. The candidate then rode his bicycle along the Charles River, stopping at a garage where he stores his Harley-Davidson to warm the engine with a spin around the block.

Today, Kerry flies to Iowa to thank voters for the January caucus victory that launched him on a winning streak that put him on the brink of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. He will continue on to Wheeling, W.Va., to start a tour of Midwestern states that will focus on his plans for job creation.