First, some alleged Catholics...
From Roto-Reuters:
Bishop's linking Obama to Hitler enrages Notre Dame professors
More than a hundred University of Notre Dame professors have demanded that Illinois Bishop Daniel Jenky renounce comments he made criticizing President Barack Obama's stance on religious liberty that compared him to dictators Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
"Jenky's comments demonstrate ignorance of history,
insensitivity to victims of genocide and absence of judgment," said the
letter addressed this week to the leadership of the renowned Catholic
university in Indiana and signed by 131 professors from various fields.
The letter urged the school to distance itself from Jenky's "incendiary statement," and called for Jenky, 65, a Notre Dame
graduate who has led a Catholic diocese in Peoria, Illinois, since
2002, to "renounce loudly and publicly this destructive analogy" - or
resign from the university's Board of Fellows and board of trustees.
Jenky, along with other U.S. Catholic bishops and
social conservatives, condemned the Obama administration's requirement
that church-affiliated institutions provide insurance that covers
contraception.
But his April 14 homily singled out Obama and the
Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, saying "The Church will survive
... the calculated disdain of the President of the United States ... and
of the current (Democratic) majority of the federal Senate."
Even after the White House sought to calm the furor by
announcing last month it would not require church-run hospitals,
universities and charities to pay for birth control coverage but instead
shift the burden to insurers, the bishops continued to battle against
the mandate.
The bishops said
the mandate was part of a broader attack on religion by state and
federal authorities, a position echoed by Republican presidential
candidates on the campaign trail who accused the Obama administration of
waging war on religious freedom.
In his homily,
Jenky compared the administration's stance to anti-religious figures in
history such as Hitler and Stalin who "have tried to force Christians to
huddle and hide within the confines of their churches."
"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," Jenky said.
"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," he said.
Jenky's comments were quoted in newspapers, and his
homily was reproduced on the website of the Catholic Post, the Peoria
diocese's newspaper.
Critics of Jenky, including groups dedicated to the
separation of church and state, seized on his remarks, contending he
instructed his flock to vote against Obama in November's general
election, a violation of the church's tax-exempt status.
In response to the uproar, Patricia Gibson, chancellor
of the Peoria diocese, said in a statement that Jenky's comments had
been taken out of context and that he was only drawing from history to
illustrate his point.
"Bishop Jenky is concerned that our government is treading on one of our most dear freedoms: religious liberty ...," she wrote.
A diocese spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the Notre Dame professors' letter.
Jenky formerly served as an auxiliary bishop in the
Indiana diocese that includes Notre Dame, and had previously worked for
the school in administrative posts.
A school spokesman,
Dennis Brown, said the letter was from a group of faculty members, not
the school itself. "Beyond that, we do not comment on the personal views
of Board members other than to say that they do not necessarily reflect
those of the university."
And now some "Jews" who obviously think those horror stories their grandparents told were merely fairy tales that are only useful for intimidating ones's political opponents into silence...
From AP via Yahoo! News:
ADL wants Ill. bishop's apology for Obama comments
The Anti-Defamation League wants an Illinois bishop to apologize for a homily that compared President Barack Obama's heath care policies to actions by Adolf Hitler, but a diocese spokeswoman says the comments were intended as historical context.
Don't forget Bismarck!
Peoria Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky
said Sunday that Obama is following previous governments that "tried to
force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their
churches." He pointed to Hitler in Germany and Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union.
ADL Regional Director Lonnie Nasatir said Thursday that Jenky needs a history lesson on the "religious intolerance and anti-Semitism fostered in society" by Hitler and Stalin.
Diocesan
Chancellor Patricia Gibson, however, says Jenky offered the comparisons
to "prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church
and other religions."
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