Bishop Jenky of Peoria: Obama Follows Path of Stalin and Hitler

 St. Michael the Archangel with Bishop Jenky

There can be no neutrality in the war for religious liberty, Bishop Jenky of Peoria, Illinois told an audience of Catholic fathers who attended the annual gathering of diocesan men this week: "As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith.”

Bishop Jenky's address echoed the themes of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' April 12 Statement on Religious Liberty, which called for America's bishops to focus "all the energies the Catholic community can muster" on a national campaign of prayer and action during the 14 days between the Feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fischer (June 22) through the 4th of July.

Bishop Jenky compared Barak Obama's  mandate that Catholic institutions pay for health insurance that supplies abortion, sterilization, and contraception for employees to the worst attacks on religious liberty in the 20th century: “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care. In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama--with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda--now seems intent on following a similar path.”

“Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral. This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries--only excepting our church buildings--could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb. No Catholic ministry--and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries--can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions."


Get the full text of Bishop Jenky's address, and podcasts of other talks by the bishop, at the Peoria Catholic Post.