LifeSiteNews reported that Senator Ted Kennedy dutifully did not receive communion during the papal mass at Nationals stadium yesterday. The photographs provided and the observations of the photographer certainly appeared to indicate that. However, LifeSiteNews received a copy of an email from another pro-life person, Daniel J. Skehan, who was near Kennedy at the function.
He wrote,
“Two of my sons and I attended the Papal Mass yesterday. We were seated in section 216, directly above the section in which Ted Kennedy was seated. Several minutes prior to the general distribution of communion a priest walked down to Ted Kennedy and gave him communion. There was some discussion amongst we in our section about the inappropriateness of his reception of the Host. Be certain, he remained seated not out of some self-enforced respect for the sacrament, but rather out of respect for his girth and mobility.”
Our photographer friend was of course not focusing on Kennedy at the time and did not expect that he would be given this special advance reception of communion. Organizers of the event did not seem to at all be mindful of the public scandal of this occurrence given that they made a special effort to ensure the Senator was given the host despite his very well known lack of communion with the Church on the issues of abortion, homosexuality and other serious moral issues.
We have corrected our original report.