Breaking bread or breaking rules.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Bill Tammeus

KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Holy Communion _ also called the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper _ is meant to be a Christian ritual of grace and unity.

"The Eucharist is the center of our faith," says the Rev. Norman Rotert, pastor of Visitation Catholic Church of Kansas City.

But in this tumultuous political year, Communion has become the center of a divisive dispute in the Catholic Church.

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops noted in a statement issued recently, "The polarizing tendencies of election-year politics can lead to circumstances in which Catholic teaching and sacramental practice can be misused for political ends."

The emotions evident in the conflict reflect how seriously many Christians view Communion, which is rooted in the Last Supper of Jesus, a meal he shared with his disciples the night before he was crucified.

Although the current debate is taking place in the Catholic Church, much of Christianity has been divided for centuries over how to understand Communion. Those differences have helped to perpetuate the profound Protestant-Catholic split that began with the 16th-century Reformation.