“This is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral,” exhorted Peoria Bishop Daniel R. Jenky during the April 14 “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith.” Inciting his followers, the bishop said:
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 judgment 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 [clubs for rightwing college students], 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.
Jenky was repeating the threat made by other US bishops to close their schools, hospitals and public ministries allegedly because insurance companies will pay the costs of contraception (now redefined as “killing innocent human life”) for religious employers. They will continue to blame Obama even though it’s the American taxpayers who are funding much of their “charity.”
Perhaps our $3 billion or so in tax dollars could be better spent on either government assistance or non-Catholic charitable groups not intent on electing the plutocrats who caused the poverty and suffering in the first place.
Bishop Jenky is continuing the vitriolic attacks against Obama made by numerous US bishops:
"Apocalyptic" is how Obama was described less than two weeks after Election Day, by Cardinal James Francis Stafford, former archbishop of Denver then head of a Vatican bureau.
"Embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the 'hope,' the 'future' of our nation," was a thinly-veiled reference to Obama’s campaign by Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis Cardinal Raymond Burke on January 12, 2009.
"In democracies we elect public servants, not messiahs," stated Archbishop Chaput the following month.
President Obama was invited by the University of Notre Dame to give the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree in May 2009. The number of US prelates who publicly condemned the invitation reached close to 80.
The invitation is “truly obscene.” Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Ill.
“President Obama ...intentionally holds and deliberately advocates positions contrary to fundamental moral principles.” Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, NJ.
Obama has a “long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred.” Bishop John M. D’Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese
Obama carries out “a consistent implementation of policies and programs which confirm and advance the culture of death.” Cardinal Raymond L. Burke.
More troubling are the official pronouncements from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Days after the 2008 campaign ended the bishops "pledged the resources of the Church to mobilize the Catholic community to...reject the abortion extremism of the Freedom of Choice Act," a non-existent bill falsely attributed to Obama.
Cardinal George, president of the USCCB, issued a statement via an official “USCCB News Release” with the heading: Don’t Move From ‘Democracy to Despotism’ Cardinal Francis George Warns when the Obama administration placed Bush’s “Provider Refusal Rule,” - which would have made each person in the medical field a law unto themselves to decide what, if any, medical advice, procedure or prescription could be allowed to patients - under a standard 30-day comment period to allow support or objections to be brought forward.
The USCCB issued the following news release: Proposed NIH guidelines divorce stem cell research from ethical foundation. Innocent humans treated as commodities for body parts. The text further stated: “….They want to obtain stem cells by destroying human embryos specially generated for research through in vitro fertilization or cloning procedures - a ‘create to kill’policy,” although President Obama had promised strict ethical guidelines including banning human cloning.
And so it continues to the present.
Obama's contraception mandate “may only be the beginning of an historic attack on religious freedom.” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan.
Forcing Catholic organizations to choose between following Obama’s mandate and Jesus’ mandate “strikes at the very heart of the right to religious liberty on which our country was founded.” Bishop William E. Lori, Bridgeport, Conn.
Obama is assuming power "to define what religious faith is and how believers should express their faith commitments.” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez.
The mandate is “like a slap in the face” that says “To Hell with you!” to Catholics and religious freedom. Obama has “inextricably linked [health care reform] to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.” Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh
“When the government tampers with a freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead.” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
And the call goes out for Catholic “martyrdom.”
“Like the martyrs of old, we must be prepared to accept suffering which could include heavy fines and imprisonment.” Nebraska Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.
Being a bishop in the United States is about “loving service that includes sacrifice.” Bishop Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend
The April 14 “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith” included a one-mile march through downtown Peoria. Displaying their readiness for martyrdom and sacrifice, “The men who took part in the rally showed signs of that fearlessness when they stood in a steady rain during an outdoor 30-minute program on the banks of the Illinois River," stated the diocesan newspaper. "It was the fifth time that Father Ron Dodd, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Odell, had taken part in the annual march and Mass. He said rain wasn’t going to keep him from making the 90-minute drive to Peoria or the one-mile walk.”
This could actually be funny if not for the death and misery caused by the Church-supported corporatocracy.