At a national conference last week, American Catholic bishops wrestled with the issue of denying Communion to politicians who support the right to an abortion. They ultimately decided to leave that decision to each bishop.

The issue has caught fire because a few bishops have publicly stated that they would deny Communion to presidential candidate John Kerry, who is a Catholic. A Colorado bishop even stated that parishioners who vote for such candidates should not receive Communion.

Bishops would be wise to follow the comments of Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, who wrote a thoughtful, nuanced essay on the matter last week for the Inland Register ( www.dioceseofspokane.org). In it, he wrote: “The prophet Isaiah has that wonderful line about peace-making – turning swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks. In our present-day American society, particularly in regard to politics, I fear that we are reversing the situation, and taking God’s great gift to our Church and using it as a weapon of divisiveness and destruction.”

Forty-four years ago, candidate John F. Kennedy had to assure the broader electorate that he would not allow the Catholic Church to dictate his political decisions. Politicizing the Eucharist could serve to rekindle those fears.

It’s certainly legitimate for the church to expect Catholic politicians to uphold Catholic beliefs in their public roles. And the church has every right to hold forth on important issues of the day. But is it wise for bishops to use Communion as a “teachable moment”? Have they really exhausted all other avenues?

Skylstad wonders whether it’s possible to love God and to love your neighbor with such a confrontational strategy. He advocates “dialogue, discussion, persuasion.” He goes on to say: “A club will not do the trick. We must act persuasively, with respect for the intelligence of the people with whom we interact – our own Catholic community and society at large.”

How the church interacts with the rest of society is an important point. “We can be political without being partisan,” Skylstad writes.

By calling out Kerry during an election campaign and limiting the issue to abortion, bishops risk being seen as tools of the Republican Party. Republicans who support abortion rights, such as New York Gov. George Pataki and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have avoided public rebuke. And unlike abortion, the church’s social justices issues, such as the death penalty, poverty and “just war,” have not become litmus tests.

A recent poll found that 75 percent of Catholics don’t think Communion should be withheld from politicians. Punishing them isn’t going to change their minds, but it will enflame people inside and outside the church.

The best course is quiet, thoughtful engagement with politicians, not turning plowshares into swords.