PEORIA, Illinois, April 17, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a stunning homily on the weekend, an Illinois bishop slammed President Obama for his "radical pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda" and said Catholics must line up against that agenda at the ballot box in November or else lose all her dearly-held institutions.
"This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries--only excepting our church buildings - could easily be shut down," said Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria at a gathering of Catholic men on Saturday.
"Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb," he continued.
The bishop warned that with the Obama administration's mandate for forcing religious employers to fund contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, America is on a path leading to the state of past dictatorships when Christians were forced to "huddle and hide," such as Bismarck's Kulturkampf, Hitler's Nazis, and Stalin's Communists.
"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," he 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 added.
The bishop acknowledged that Christians could lose the battle against Obama's mandate, but insisted that "before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral."
"No Catholic ministry - and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries - can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions," he said.
The faithful, he said, "can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction."
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