Washington ? Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church if they deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights.

The letter’s signers, all Democrats, include at least three House members with strong antiabortion voting records.

“For many years Catholics were denied public office by voters who feared that they would take direction from the Pope. … ” they wrote.

“While that type of paranoid anti-Catholicism seems to be a thing of the past, attempts by Church leaders today to influence votes by the threat of withholding a sacrament will revive latent anti-Catholic prejudice, which so many of us have worked so hard to overcome.”

The three-page letter, dated May 10, was sent to McCarrick because he heads a task force of U.S. bishops that is considering whether, and how, the church should take action against Catholic politicians whose public positions are at odds with Catholic doctrine.

McCarrick’s spokesman, Susan Gibbs, said he would not comment on the letter. She said the seven-member task force is “listening to many different voices” and will grant the 48 House members’ request for a meeting. “They will be heard. It just hasn’t been arranged yet,” she said.

A handful of the nation’s 300 Catholic bishops have caused a political furor this year by threatening to withhold the Eucharist, which Catholics believe is the body and blood of Christ, from presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and other Catholic officials who vote for abortion rights.

On May 5, the bishop of Colorado Springs, Michael Sheridan, went further by issuing a pastoral letter saying ordinary parishioners should not receive communion if they vote for politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research or gay marriage.