Democratic candidate meets Washington cardinal in private session

Published: 2004-04-16

HYATTSVILLE, Md. (CNS) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry met with Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick April 15 for a private 45-minute meeting that both men declined to discuss. The meeting at the Washington Archdiocese's Pastoral Center in Hyattsville was arranged at the request of the Massachusetts senator, who is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president and a Catholic. The two had not previously met. Kerry has recently been the focus of attention over the fact that some of his political positions on issues such as abortion conflict with Catholic teaching. In an interview aired on Easter on "Fox News Sunday," Cardinal McCarrick was asked about statements by at least one bishop -- St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke -- that he would deny Kerry Communion. Cardinal McCarrick acknowledged that "there are many of us who would feel that there are certain restrictions that we might put on people." But, he added, "I think many of us would not like to use the Eucharist as part of the sanctions."

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