Cardinal cautions Catholic politicians

WASHINGTON -- On a day when Senator John F. Kerry was championing abortion rights at a rally for his presidential campaign, an influential Vatican cardinal said he believed that Catholic politicians who support such rights are "not fit" to receive Communion at Mass.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, speaking at a news conference about a new Vatican report on liturgical practices at Mass, was asked whether "unambiguously proabortion" Catholic politicians should be denied Communion, though that issue was not addressed in the report. "Yes," the cardinal replied.

"The person is not fit," said Arinze, a Nigerian who leads the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a high-level Vatican body that monitors and sets policies on church service. "If he shouldn't receive it, then it shouldn't be given."

Asked specifically about Communion for Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who supports abortion rights, Arinze declined to respond specifically. "The norm of the church is clear," he said. "The Catholic Church exists in the United States. There are bishops there. Let them interpret it."

Arinze's comments, which were reported by the National Catholic Reporter and other media outlets based at the Vatican, are significant not only because of his rank in the Vatican, but because he is a church leader seen as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II. The Vatican has not directly addressed the issue of Communion for Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, while the general practice among American clergy is to leave eligibility for Communion up to individual Catholics to decide.

Kerry, a former altar boy who attends Mass regularly and takes Communion -- a sacred rite in the church, representing the body of Christ -- is the most prominent Catholic politician whose support of abortion rights has offended some church leaders.

The Massachusetts senator did not comment on Arinze's remarks yesterday, though during the abortion rights rally he made a point of emphasizing that he was not "proabortion."

"I believe the right of privacy is a constitutional right," Kerry told the crowd of 1,000 cheering supporters, many of them holding red, circular placards that said "Stand Up! For Choice" on one side and "Stand Up! For Kerry" on the other. "And let me say importantly -- I think all of you know this -- protecting the right of privacy is not proabortion, it is prochoice, pro the rights of women."

Kerry also echoed the oft-expressed views of President Clinton on the issue of abortion, saying, "Abortion should be rare, but it should be safe and legal, and the government should stay out of the bedrooms of America."

Asked about Arinze's comments, campaign spokesman David Wade declined to reply directly, instead saying Kerry would continue his churchgoing practices.

"John Kerry is a believing and practicing Catholic," Wade said, shortly after Kerry concluded his remarks outside of Washington's City Museum.

"His faith has played an important role in his life, but he also believes in the separation of church and state. He believes that the constitutional line drawn by our founding fathers has helped to preserve religious liberty, and it's also helped make religious affiliation a nonissue in American politics," Wade said.

Wade said he had not spoken directly with Kerry about whether criticisms like Arinze's would affect Kerry's decision about receiving Communion, "but I know he'll continue to practice his faith." Wade said Kerry would not be attending a major abortion-rights rally scheduled for tomorrow because of a campaign event in Iowa; however, Kerry's daughter Vanessa and his two sisters, Peggy and Diana, planned to march.

Leading American bishops downplayed the immediate significance of Arinze's views yesterday while signaling that the issue was a matter of concern.

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, made it clear that there will be no immediate change in practice. Gregory said the issue of Communion for politicians who disagree with church teachings is already being discussed by a task force of the bishops conference and that, in the meantime, it is up to individual bishops to decide how to proceed.

Currently in the United States, only two bishops, in St. Louis and Lincoln, Neb., have said they would deny Communion to Kerry.

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston has said that while he believes Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should refrain from taking Communion, "It is not our policy to deny Communion. It is up to the individual."

"Cardinal Arinze refrained from making any comment on Kerry and said that needed to be left up to the US bishops conference," the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a spokesman for O'Malley, said yesterday. "We're waiting for any kind of input that the bishops' committee is going to give."

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, D.C., who heads a bishops' task force on Catholic politicians, was in Rome yesterday, but a spokesman, Mark Adkison, echoed Coyne's statement.

"What the Vatican came out with restated church teaching, and wasn't anything new," Adkison said. "The responsibility is on the individual to examine himself as a Catholic."

One of Kerry's top campaign surrogates, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, weighed in yesterday during a stop in Boston, contending that Arinze's comments only reflected the view of "one member in the Vatican circles."

"He's a prominent figure in the Vatican circle, but he's not speaking for the pope," said Kennedy, whose brother John was the only Catholic to be elected US president. "That's a major difference."

After yesterday's rally, Kerry spoke at a luncheon of newspaper editors and reporters, where he unveiled a reformulated "Contract with America's Middle Class," his pledges to keep the country safe from terrorism and to create 10 million jobs.

Kerry also decried the lack of access of the media to photograph the coffins of US soldiers killed in action as they return home, and pledged to be "as open as possible" with information and records.

One journalist asked Kerry about the "liberal" label that some Republicans have given him, prompting Kerry to critique the use of labels as misleading, noting that Bush is viewed as a conservative yet has presided over huge new budget deficits.

Globe correspondent Matthew Rodriguez contributed to this report from Boston. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.