by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

In what is possibly the most hysterical language used to date in the Catholic church's fight against the Affordable Care Act, Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois, compared President Obama to Hitler and Stalin.

In an April 15 speech condemning the president's 'radical pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda,' Jenky said the church was in a 'war' in which no 'believing Catholic may remain neutral.'

'In the late 19th century,' Jenky said in his speech, '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 First Amendment rights, President Obama - with his radical pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.'

Not content to attack Obama, Jenky also went after Catholic politicians who vote for reproductive choice, comparing them to Judas.

'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,' the bishop said.

In January, Jenky ordered parishes and other Catholic institutions in his jurisdiction to insert a special prayer - the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel - into the intercessions at Sunday Mass 'for the freedom of the Catholic Church in America.'

The St. Michael prayer was authored by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, and was once commonly said in Catholic parishes to ask for the defeat of Communism in the Soviet Union.

Jenky said it was his duty as bishop to summon the local Church into 'spiritual and temporal combat in defense of Catholic Christianity.'

'If these regulations [requiring insurers to cover contraceptives] are put into effect, they could close down every Catholic school, hospital, and the other public ministries of our Church, which is perhaps their underlying intention,' Bishop Jenky said.

'What is perfectly clear is that this is a bigoted and blanket attack on the First Amendment rights of every Catholic believer.' Jenky has been bishop of Peoria since 2002.

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