April (Web-only) 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

Kerry takes Easter Communion in Boston
"All you need is a picture of Kerry going up to the Communion rail and being denied, and you've got a story that'll last for weeks," America editor Thomas Reese told Time a few weeks ago.

As it turns out, no one needed such a photo (though there are some of him taking Communion). Are we doomed every weekend from now until November to suffer "will he or won't he" stories about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and the Lord's Table? Perhaps, but this week, the holiest time of the year, was especially appropriate for such pieces.

John Kerry did receive Communion yesterday at The Paulist Center in Boston. The New York Times and Associated Press both describe it as "a kind of New Age church." (The Times later changed its description to "a nontraditional church") The Paulist Center itself says it's "a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition" and "a Catholic community that welcomes all, liberates the voice of each, and goes forth to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ." The community (it seems to mostly reserve the word church when referring to such matters as "crisis in the Church") has a special emphasis on "reaching out to marginalized or alienated Catholics," and on "building a loving, caring and compassionate community that welcomes all."

John Ardis, director of the center, told the Boston Herald that Kerry's positions on the death penalty and "social justice" are in line with Roman Catholic teachings, but apparently didn't mention the chief point of debate: Kerry's unflinching support of abortion. "How come it's so much easier to see other people's sins than to see our own?" Ardis said, telling the Herald that he received 50 messages on Good Friday from Catholics ...