Priests ordered to read criticism of Obama

Manya A. Brachear
Chicago Tribune
Nov. 1, 2012

 Joining the chorus of Roman Catholic clergy in Illinois criticizing President Barack Obama before next week’s election, Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky ordered priests to read a letter to parishioners on Sunday, explaining that politicians who support abortion rights also reject Jesus. “By virtue of your vow of obedience to me as your Bishop, I require that this letter be personally read by each celebrating priest at each Weekend Mass,” Jenky wrote in a letter circulated to clergy in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.

 In the letter, Jenky cautions parishioners that Obama and a majority of U.S. senators will not reconsider the mandate that would require employers, including religious groups, to provide free birth-control coverage in their health-care plans.“This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system,” Jenky wrote. “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,” Jenky added. “They are objectively guilty of grave sin.”

 Earlier this year, Jenky delivered a controversial homily criticizing the contraception mandate. The bishop included Obama’s policies in a list of historic challenges the Catholic Church has overcome in previous centuries, including Hitler and Stalin’s campaigns.

 Jenky is the third Illinois Catholic leader to offer pointed guidance for Catholic voters recently. Last month, Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki offered a commentary on the parties’ platforms that he said was intended only as guidance. “There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils,” Paprocki explained in the Springfield Diocese newspaper.

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 In the Rockford Diocese, Vicar General Eric Barr compared Obama’s support of religious freedom in Muslim countries with his lack of support for Catholic liberty.