Kennedy vowed that, if elected, the oath that he would follow was the one he took upon his inauguration to defend the U.S. Constitution.
At a time when some equated Catholic teachings to socialism, the Massachusetts senator said: “I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.”
ALBANY — Bishop Edward Scharfenberger doesn’t support a blanket rule denying Communion to politicians who support abortion, a spokeswoman said after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops vehemently debated that topic.
“He doesn’t want to politicize the Eucharist. It’s too important and sacred to us to turn into a political football,” Diocese spokeswoman Mary DeTurris Poust said Sunday.