Peoria's Catholic Lie Exposed--April 2012
Peoria's Catholic Lie Exposed
We can't blame President Obama for our contraceptive compromise here at OSF and The Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
Our View: Bishop off base in linking Obama to monsters of the past--JS Editorial
Bishop off base in linking Obama to monsters of the past Adolf Hitler started a world war that ultimately would claim 70 million lives or more. At least 11 million of those people would perish - 6 million of them Jews in a conscious attempt at genocide - in what would become known as the Holocaust, initiated by the Nazi fuehrer. Meanwhile, Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in the Soviet Union would stack up 3 million bodies through his various purges, with untold millions more starved to death.
Adolf Hitler started a world war that ultimately would claim 70 million lives or more. At least 11 million of those people would perish - 6 million of them Jews in a conscious attempt at genocide - in what would become known as the Holocaust, initiated by the Nazi fuehrer. Meanwhile, Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in the Soviet Union would stack up 3 million bodies through his various purges, with untold millions more starved to death.
So when Peoria Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky says, as he did in his homily of April 14, that “President Obama, with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path” - one carved by Hitler and Stalin, among other “enemies of Christ” - well, those of us prone to understatement would say it has raised a few eyebrows. In fact, comments to the story in the Journal Star’s online edition have gone through the roof, expressing praise and condemnation alike. The issue is well on its way to going national, perhaps then some.
The bishop didn’t stop there: “This fall, every practicing believer must vote, and must vote with their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries - only excepting 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.”
The Diocese has backed off some but not much in the face of criticism, particularly from Jewish leaders who have demanded an apology for what they perceive, aside from any indictment of Obama, as the bishop’s trivialization of the Holocaust. The Diocese insists that the bishop’s comments have been “taken out of context,” that he was merely trying “to prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church and other religions” by providing some context of his own - while conceding that “we certainly have not reached the same level of persecution” - and that the remarks were intended to be restricted to “a religious ceremony in which he spoke as a shepherd to his flock.”
Some thoughts:
One does not have to be an apologist for Obama to find the bishop’s comments inaccurate, inappropriate, inexplicable, even irresponsible. For this page there is certainly a sense of “here we go again.” Supporters of George W. Bush quite rightly did not appreciate it when his critics made outrageous comparisons to one of the worst monsters in human history. To even mention Hitler and Stalin in the same breath as current White House policies - some of which have drawn opposition from this page, as well, including the overstep on the contraception mandate - well, hyperbole would be the kind word for it. It’s over the top, out of bounds, hard to give the bishop the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Peoria’s media-shy bishop is a public figure whether he likes it or not, and his comments are taken seriously by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, well beyond the confines of St. Mary’s Cathedral. These are combustible times with no shortage of impressionable people, requiring level-headed leadership. For the moment Bishop Jenky arguably has made himself as polarizing as the president for whom he holds such disdain. He will forgive - or not - those who find it ironic that a religious leader would contribute to the poisonous discourse in this country, which he himself has denounced when he has perceived it as directed at Catholics.
As to the complaint that his words have been taken “out of context,” one has read and listened to them and doesn’t believe that to be the case. There is no mistaking the militancy of the language, the references to “a fighting faith,” a “fearless Army,” “heroic Catholicism.” These were not off-the-cuff remarks. Indeed, they’re consistent with a narrative that has been building for some time. One example: At the bishop’s direction, since January Diocesan churches have been leading parishioners in the Prayer to St. Michael, which begs “protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” It’s not hard to connect the dots to whom the “devil” is in that scenario. No one, least of all a moral leader, is obligated to stand silent in the face of something he believes to be wrong, but there is a duty to play fair. The Hitler/Stalin analogy was quite simply unnecessary and counterproductive - especially given the baggage in play - to making an otherwise articulate, reasoned argument on religious liberty and political engagement.
This page appreciates that Catholic Church officials equate certain types of contraception with abortion, which they also describe as a holocaust. Readers should know that when the bishop talks about the Obama administration forcing the church “to pay for abortions,” he does not distinguish between the surgical procedure in a first trimester pregnancy and what is commonly referred to as “the pill,” taken by a woman to prevent a pregnancy. There is disagreement as to whether the latter qualifies as an “abortion,” but in any case, implicit in the bishop’s comments is that Obama, who undeniably is pro-choice, has played some direct role in the regrettable number of abortions in this nation, or that he’s applauding them from the sidelines. Was a pro-choice-before-he-was-pro-life Ronald Reagan responsible for the some 12.6 million abortions recorded on his watch? Was George H.W. Bush to blame for U.S. abortions peaking in 1990? About as much as Obama is, one supposes. In fact there are fewer abortions today than there were then, even with a “pro-abortion” president in an America of higher population.
One might add that if the president is reelected and the bishop begins closing schools, hospitals and social service agencies, it will be because he made that decision, not the Obama administration. Again, one appreciates the bishop’s stance that “there is no permissible compromise with an intrinsic evil.” But if you take that thinking to its logical end, it’s fair to ask if the bishop, for consistency’s sake, will be asking Catholic women using artificial means of family planning - as many of child-bearing age apparently do - to vacate the pews. What about doctors affiliated with OSF St. Francis Medical Center who prescribe contraceptives? Obama can hardly be held liable for those expressions of free will, in defiance of church teaching. “No compromise” means no compromise.
Finally, it’s worth noting that a challenge has already been filed with the IRS to the Catholic Diocese’s tax-exempt status, which requires a certain political neutrality. That would be unfortunate (if also unlikely, given past practice). The bishop didn’t come right out and say, “Don’t vote for Obama,” but the message was clear, with all of his denunciations directed at Democrats - in the White House, in the Illinois Legislature, in the U.S. Senate. He is pushing the envelope. Time will tell if he’s done the Diocese or his cause any favors.
The bishop may dismiss all of the above as just another unfair criticism consistent with the “malice of the media” he often invokes, but it is not intended as such. What it is intended to be, respectfully, is a reminder that all of us have accountability for our words and the consequences thereof, with not a one of us excused from the need to examine our own consciences.
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