Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) – a member of the famously Catholic Kennedy family – told The Providence Journal last month that, in 2007, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Providence diocese requested he refrain from receiving Communion, and had directed priests in the area’s diocese to deny him the sacrament. According to Kennedy, the bishop’s instruction was a response to Kennedy’s stance on abortion. The Church certainly has a right to form and promote its own views regarding health care and abortion. In this case, however, Tobin crossed a line when he reportedly discouraged Kennedy from participating in Communion. As the most sacred rite in the Catholic Church, the Eucharist should not be used as a political tool.Kennedy’s interview with The Providence Journal came as the culmination of several months’ worth of exchanges between Kennedy and Tobin – in which Kennedy criticized the Catholic Church’s position on the proposed federal health care bills and the bishop criticized Kennedy’s support for legal abortion.While bishops can refuse Communion to those in opposition to Church doctrine under Church law, that practice is rarely carried out – when it is, it appears as more of a political statement than a religious one. While health care and abortion are serious matters that warrant constructive debate, leveraging the Eucharist is not the route to be taken.any argue that a pro-life position is an essential component of a strong Catholic faith, and, furthermore, that support for policies violating this position indicates a severe disconnect from Church beliefs. Tobin has said that he believes Kennedy should not receive Communion because his divergence from Church teaching renders his relationship with the Church broken. That logic, however, does not take into account the diversity of modern-day Catholics. Are Catholics who support gay marriage or the death penalty, or those who have been divorced and remarried not Catholic? Should everyone who disagrees with a particular stance taken by the Church on a political issue be denied Communion? We do not think so, but ours is not a debate about what makes someone Catholic; it concerns using a religious sacrament in a public, political way.Ultimately, Church leaders such as Tobin should use their power to teach and lobby in order to influence politics. Using the Eucharist itself as a political tool, especially a divisive one, takes religious authority too far and could be contradictory to the unifying message the Church has striven for in recent years.If failing to agree with the Church on every issue makes one less of a Catholic, how many can actually claim to be truly Catholic? The Church’s – and specifically, Tobin’s – hard line is impractical, and could significantly weaken the Church’s member base. Rather than politicizing the Eucharist, Tobin and Kennedy should sit down for the discussion they cancelled earlier in the year. They should air their differences as political leaders and powerful religious figures have done before. Catholics who diverge from the Church over an issue of doctrine should not be disparaged by bishops, and they certainly should not be excluded from the most sacred of sacraments in the Catholic faith.*To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact [opinionthehoya.com](opinionthehoya.com). Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.*”