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ADL condemns bishop for Obama, Hitler, Stalin comparison
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that for generations has fought racism and anti-Semitism, has condemned Peoria, Ill., Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky for remarks it terms “outrageous, offensive and completely over the top.”
The arch-orthodox Bishop Jenky, in a sermon at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, likened President Obama’s “extreme secularist” policies to those of Germany’s “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
President Barack Obama on previous Seattle visit.
As related in the Chicago Tribune, Jenky said:
“Remember, that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches, like the first disciples in the upper room. In the late 19th Century, Bismarck waged his ‘Kulturkampf’, a culture war against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.
“Clemenceau, nicknamed the ‘priest eater,’ tried the same thing in France in the first decade of 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 1st Amendment rights, Barack Obama with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda now seems intent on following a similar path.”
It wasn’t Jenky’s only comparison. He also took after Catholic politicians who do not follow dictates from the Church hierarchy, saying:
“May God have mercy especially on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.”
Lonnie Nasatir, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Chicago, asked Jenky to apologize and described the bishop’s homily as “outrageous, offensive and completely over the top.”
“Clearly Bishop Jenky needs a history lesson,” said Nasatir. “There are few, if any, parallels in history to the religious intolerance and anti-Semitism fostered by Stalin, and especially Hitler, who under his regime perpetuated the open persecution and ultimate genocide of Jews, Catholics and many other minorities.”
The Tribune could not reach Jenky for comment. The conservative wing of the Catholic hierarchy has taken to denouncing the press as part of what it claims is an assault on “religious liberty” in America.
Seattle’s Catholic Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was previously bishop of the neighboring Joliet, Ill., diocese.
Posted by Joel Connelly on April 19, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Source:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/04/19/adl-condemns-bishop-for-obama-hitler-stalin-comparison/
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