Bishop Jenky of Peoria has ordered this letter read in all his parishes this weekend:
Dear Catholic Believers,
Since the foundation of the American Republic and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, I do not think there has ever been a time more threatening to our religious liberty than the present. Neither the president of the United States nor the current majority of the Federal Senate have been willing to even consider the Catholic community’s grave objections to those HHS mandates that would require all Catholic institutions, exempting only our church buildings, to fund abortion, sterilization, and artificial contraception. This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system. Contrary to the guarantees embedded in the First Amendment, the HHS mandates attempt to now narrowly define and thereby drastically limit our traditional religious works. They grossly and intentionally intrude upon the deeply held moral convictions that have always guided our Catholic schools, hospitals, and other apostolic ministries.
Nearly two thousand years ago, after our Savior had been bound, beaten, scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns, a pagan Roman Procurator displayed Jesus to a hostile crowd by sarcastically declaring: “Behold your King.” The mob roared back: “We have no king but Caesar.” Today, Catholic politicians, bureaucrats, and their electoral supporters who callously enable the destruction of innocent human life in the womb also thereby reject Jesus as their Lord. They are objectively guilty of grave sin. For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life. God is not mocked, and as the Bible clearly teaches, after this passing instant of life on earth, God’s great mercy in time will give way to God’s perfect judgment in eternity.
I therefore call upon every practicing Catholic in this Diocese to vote. Be faithful to Christ and to your Catholic Faith. May God guide and protect His Holy Church, and may God bless America.
Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC
Catholic Bishop of Peoria
Blogs For Victory 
Courage. The Bishop has it. I applaud him for showing it in public.
GMB
absolutely, the donk party stands for every thing Christianity is against.
I also applaud his courage to speak so publicly about his political convictions. But I condemn his cowardice and hypocrisy for not simultaneously abrogating his own tax-exempt status as a collusion between church and state. He has every right to speak his political mind, and the United States has every right to tax political fronts masquerading as religious institutions.
This is a reverse Tea Party outrage – no representation without taxation! You wanna play? You gotta pay like the rest of us.
Bozo,
You believe that because you have a mistaken belief that government is superior to – or at least equal to – the Church. Sorry, Church is superior…it isn’t religion leaving government alone but government leaving religion alone. The Church – and all religious bodies – have a bound duty to influence government by all legal means available…government, however, must never interfere with religion except in cases where public safety is imminently endangered.
My guess the weekly collections will be down after hearing that letter. A Priest in my parish a few weeks ago gave a morality sermon and people withheld their envelopes.
I will also be curious to see if anybody walks out.
Wonder if someone will bitch to the IRS?
thcarp
let the wolves in sheeps clothing leave, withheld their **DOLLARS** ..BFD
and let them call the IRS on wright, farracan, je$$e, al and every black church out there.
thcarr,
You’re saying that people in your parish opposed a sermon on morality? Do you see the irony in that?
Hilarious.
cluster
LOL
amazing isnt it?
maybe he can sue because he felt uncomfortable………
thcarr,
It wouldn’t surprise me – but I think that at least some of the Catholic Bishops are realizing that it is better to temporarily have a smaller number of parishoners in return for a future Church which is more faithful to the teachings of Christ – and which will eventually be even larger than the Church of today.
This does not mean I want any of my fellow Catholics to leave – I hope they will see the truth. I tell them they can be liberal and still remain Catholic…but they must get on the side of life from conception until natural death.
I agree with your sentiment, what I failed to mention was that at the end of that sermon, the Priest got a very load round of applause that lasted several minutes.
But, I have gotten used to hypocrisy here in Cleveland where the D’s rule most of the local governments. It took some time after growing up in an Heavy R part of Niagara County, NY
Your history of religious and racial bigotry still has you, and your fellow Brimstone posters, banned from posting here. //Moderator
The Reverend’s allegiance is to the Constitution. Obama’s is not.
moreDumbo
REALLY???
gee, seems islam never got the memo.
PS moreDumbo
the US constitution was written by Godly men who based it on Christianity….imagine that!!
moredumbo
1. God
2. country
3. Family
If one’s religion is the prime allegiance then those who feel this way are no more free thinking peoples or freedom loving peoples than al Qaida and Islam.
strange no difference one religion who preaches the protection of life even in the womb,t the love and protection of women, and the other that preaches hate, murder, defilement of women, mayhem and hatred.
and YOU cant tell the difference……maybe that is WHY you are in hell.
Major,
Christ is my King. The nation and my family are of exceptional importance, but we all owe God primary loyalty.
At all events, the Bishop is only pointing out a basic truth here in 2012: No Catholic – no Christian – can in good conscience vote for anyone who is not firmly on the side of life. This means that anyone who says they are a Christian must pray and ponder over this fact: Barack Obama and his Democrats are committed to the Culture of Death and thus are unworthy of Christian votes.
“Barack Obama and his Democrats are committed to the Culture of Death and thus are unworthy of Christian votes.”
As are any repubs who have a history of supporting abortion or do the rules change if you have an (r) behind your name?
In the words of a very famous left-wing politician:
“I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice.”
bozo,
How dare you quote a severely conservative Mitt Romney on this blog.
GMB,
People can change their mind – I certainly have changed mine over the years. I wasn’t a Distributist, for instance, until about two years ago.
We shall see Mark. We will see if Mitt and repubs have any commitment to the words they are speaking. The repubs will have about two years to prove they have something to back up with.
Two more years of business as usual will not cut it. Be prepared for a united donkrat Congress in 2014 if the GOP does not grow a spine and tell the proggies to go pound sand.
If the GOP does not start actually opposing the proggie agenda there is no point voting for them is there?
GMB
TEA!!