When it comes to Pres. Obama’s attack on the 1st Amendment and his HHS mandate, His Excellency Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky is not kidding around.
The Bishop of Peoria has the full text of a sermon he delivered on 14 April for a conference called “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith”. A podcast audio version of the homily is available at The Bishop’s Podcasts.
Here are a couple excerpts (for the whole thing click HERE):
“May God have mercy 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.”
. . . . .
“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, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.”
. . . . .
“No matter what happens in this passing moment, at the end of time and history, our God is God and Jesus is Lord, forever and ever.
Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!”
OORAH!
WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Jenky.
Go Bishop Jenky! It’s good to live in the Diocese of Peoria.
Wow!
I wonder: is this the same “Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., D.D.” listed at nd.edu as still on the board of that illustrious “catholic” University of Notre Dame? Could this be a belated insight to the tone of his side of board meetings discussing the honorary law degree given by ND to Obama? Or is this a change from his view of Obama in 2008? Just askin’ …
At least it looks like he is on the right side of things now…
I must give him credit for knowing the lyrics to one of the greatest pieces of liturgical music in history: Entra Festiva by the incomparable Flor Peeters.
Other than that, the good bishop and I part company.
He doesn’t give the RNC and its ilk nearly enough credit for their protofascist agenda. For more on that, Google “Dr. Lawrence Britt Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism.”
frjim4321: I hope that is a joke about the Christus Vincit, although I don’t quite get it.
It is absolutely not a joke whatsoever.
Find Flor Peeters Entrata Festiva on Youtube. It’s incredible.
It’s a real piece of music – not a joke at all!
frjim: It is a good piece of music, but why would the Bishop be quoting from that piece instead of the hymn itself?
Fr. Jim,
You part company with Bishop Jenky saying that politicians that are in favor of the slaughter of 1.3 million babies a year betray Christ with their support of intrinsic evil?
That sounds like you’re parting company with the Church then.
You’re parting company with Bishop Jenky (and all the ordinaries of the US) in saying that President Obama is violating the rights to free exercise of religion of all Catholics in the United states?
Again, I don’t think your problem is with the Bishop, but with Catholicism. Perhaps you should look into it a little more deeply?
Rob
frjim4321,
I don’t think a “fascist” GOP party or government is a concern. Yeah, it could happen, but I don’t think that’s the plan these days. Why not google the communist party’s goals of infiltration of schools, govt, society, etc and see how they’re doing and how they align with the Dem party.
http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm
Cheers.
Peggy, I will do that. It’s fair to see both sides.
There’s truth on both sides.
My point was it’s a complex issue, and I don’t think this hierarch’s simplistic approach is very helpful.
I can’t imagine your ordinary in Belleville making such an simplistic unnuanced statement.
I think Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg is a well researched, in depth look at.. liberal fascism.
I know liberal fascism when I see it, btw.
Some of Lawrence Britt’s points of fascism sound close to Obama’s heart.
2.Disdain for the recognition of human rights:—— Obama rescinded Mexico City policy, the HSA decree by Kathleen Sebelius, as a state Senator, Obama voted against letting a doctor revive a baby born alive during abortion
3.Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. ….. ummm yeah, the name George Zimmerman comes to mind
5.Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy. —This one is a joke right? abortion is a bad thing, right? Whatevs.
6.Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. —-Can’t.stop.laughing
9.Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.—- There’s a reason he’s called President Goldman Sachs. And the new name is Government Motors.
13.Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability.— Not enough space to comment on the culture of corruption from this White House.
14. Fraudulent Elections- Obama and the Democrat Party are against voter id
Thanks for the heads up about Lawrence Britt’s 14 points of Fascism. I’m even more scared now.
Ah, good old ‘nuance’…..necessary, of course, because nothing’s ever really black-and-white, is it?
If you think so, then you’re too ‘simplistic’ to understand my nuanced liberal philosophy.
Poor simple you, seeing only right and wrong, only black and white…..why, don’t you know, it’s the 21st century now and the world is full of endless shades or grey! Welcome to the big tent, where nothing’s really ever wrong, you just don’t understand the nuances, that’s all….
Dear Fr. Jim, You may think orthodoxy is fascist, but not only are you wrong (Holy Mother Church says so) you’re also in a fading minority. Watch the latest Vortex episode. The younger generations want their Church back and are prepared to roll up their sleeves to repair the damage done these past forty years.
*shades of grey
Yes, His Excellency is a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, former rector of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and member of the Board of Directors of the University of Notre Dame.
Fun fact: in the late 1960s, the rector of Sacred Heart whitewashed the place, destroying all the gilding and murals that adorned the church. Jenke, as rector in the 1990s, padlocked the building to do some “scheduled renovations” and had all of the gilt-work and murals restored without telling anyone. The dinosaurs’ howls afterwards were pointless in the face of the finished project. That’s the sort of nerve you want on your side.
Our 2-party system is a game of good cop/bad cop. What makes this game especially effective is that people disagree about which is the good cop and which is the bad cop, all the while missing the fact that the good cop and the bad cop are on the same side — and it’s not your side.
In fact, the two parties are remarkably similar both in terms of what they do while in office (as opposed to what they say at rallies and fund-raisers). Which party do you vote for if you think “free trade” with China is not in our strategic interest? Or if you believe that, with the Cold War over and the threat of Soviet missiles gone, it is not in our interest to completely destroy the economy of a country 90 miles from our shore? Which party do you support if you think NAFTA was a bad idea? Even in the pro-life arena, the differences between Republicans and Democrats has traditionally been more rhetorical than bottom-line. (Yes, rhetoric can be important, and on that ground alone I could not vote for any Democratic candidate for president since Roe v. Wade. On the other hand, you know what a politician thinks is *really* important by what he is willing to do even if he knows it will cost him votes. When is the last time you saw a Republican say, “I will vote for this pro-life measure, even though it may cost me the next election”?)
The two parties are also remarkably similar in terms of their fundamental assumptions. For example, both parties not only expect but encourage their followers to base their votes not on the public good, but on their own private good. They also expect (with good reason, it seems) voters not to make rational decisions, but to basically vote for whoever has the slicker and more widespread media exposure. But democracy cannot work unless the voters are making rational (not necessarily correct, but at least rational) decisions motivated by the public good.
frjim4321,
I shall sign off this thread after this. I don’t know what you think you know about me, where I live, etc. I find your comment in that regard uncomfortable.
My ordinary, whoever he may be, is not a nuanced man, I can assure you.
That said, I am not clear as to why Bp. Jenky ought to spend any time on a theoretical concern when there is a very real threat to be faced and defeated. His diocese is now forbidden to engage in adoption and foster care placements b/c it won’t agree to place children with homosexuals. I am confident the good bishop knows what threats his people face.
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frjim4321 says:
He doesn’t give the RNC and its ilk nearly enough credit for their protofascist agenda. For more on that, Google “Dr. Lawrence Britt Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism.”
How many do you think fit the agenda of Democrats? I easily found nine.
Peggy, sorry I mixed you up with the other Peggy from the BEL diocese – my mistake. It was the Peggy with the blog from SOIL. My blunder – sorry.
Rbt, I did not find 9.
frjim4321 says:
Rbt, I did not find 9.
Gee, I wonder why. Try opening your eyes.
I’m a big fan of nuance, and sick of most people misusing the term. There is such a thing as an oversimplification, a conflation that muddles our understanding of the Truth or of various small-t truths; “nuance” properly understood simply means taking the trouble not to fall into that. The way it’s commonly used, however, is not to call for examination of the arguments on both sides and for making the necessary distinctions to figure out how anything either side gets right can be reconciled with the other, but rather to refuse to engage in logical discussion of the issue on account of alleged complexity (analyzing which may be given lip service so long as it doesn’t lead to actually getting to a point). It’s compounded if somebody takes up an unnuanced position and then hides it behind a claim of nuance — oh, I needn’t respond to your critique of what I said becuase, see, your problem is you’re not approaching any of this with enough nuance. In either case “nuance” is abused as a synonym for it being impossible to discuss anything definitively, which the proper meaning of nuance (truth being just complex enough to require basic distinctions be made) actually contradicts.
Similar thing with complexity. Complex is not the opposite of simplistic, it’s the opposite and in some sense complement of simple. Complicated is the opposite of simplistic. Nuance, properly understood, is nothing more nor less than actually bothering to delineate the complexity and simplicity of a given idea, making the necessary distinctions surrounding it, so that it can be logically discussed rather than discussed with more than realistic simplisticness — or more than realistic complication!
@frjim, what the heck does the bishop’s moral criticism of Obama’s policies have to do with fascism, and how is his view simplistic in the sense that matters (that is, failing to make basic distinctions needed to find the truth)? I’ll grant you that by noting how similar things have been done by various totalitarians of the 20th century he’s probably poking a stick in the eyes of the people he most needs to persuade, but so far so far you haven’t articulated an argument as to what’s wrong with his statement (and if you want to make the argument that it’s got accurate content presented in a manner that convinces no one who doesn’t already agree — go ahead and at least say so rather than beating around the bush with talk of fascism and complexity).
On a less important note, I’m also curious like Legisperitus as to why one wouldn’t think there’s something older both the bishop and Peeters were quoting… I could put a shout out here to our Eastern Orthodox lurkers asking if there’s an equivalent Greek formulation (I’m genuinely curious, actually, given that I’m pretty sure off the top of my head that the Latin goes way back)…
I’m also with ContraMundum on just how gorram irrelevant it is to try to frame one party’s problems in comparison with the other’s when they have most of the same problems (or even if they hadn’t); besides being logically fallacious (the sins of one party are irrelevant to criticism of the other party, period, end of story), it’s also just plain dumb when the real conclusion of showing both parties to be problematic is — guess what — that both parties are problematic.
Very militant comments by a bishop of the Church Militant. I hope to hear more comments by our bishops (and cardinals and priests) such as this sermon by Bp. Jenky. The bishops are not defenders of the 1st Amendment, they are defenders of the Catholic Church. And as has happened in the past, the Church is under attack. May Our Lord strengthen the bishops of the Church. May Our Blessed Mother pray for them. May St. Michael defend us and lead us into battle. +JMJ+
It is about time, and Bishop Jenky is the man to speak such a strong speech, being part of the order at Notre Dame which played footsy under Father Hesburgh with the far left. Bishop Jenky has started a small snowball down the mountainside, which I hope will become a huge one and crush the opposition. God bless this good man.
frjim and others, do not mix up totalitarianism of different sorts. Fascism and communism are both tyrannical systems, but not based on the same principles. Obama’s Liberation Theology is of the Marxist variety, not the fascist. Marxism and communism of any sort have been more the enemy of the Church than fascist governments. Evil in the States seems to be of the Marxist variety, based on the old ideas of class warfare, materialism (as defined as a Modernist heresy), and practical atheism.
See my blog
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Well, the extent to which fascism is really a set of principles at all is rather shady. First, none of its leading adherents held themselves out, as far as I know, as authoring a generally applicable system, the way Marx and Lenin did. Second, the sample size is quite small: Mussolini’s Italy, Nazi Germany (although National Socialism had its own wrinkles), and I suppose a few WWII Axis puppet governments. You have to increase the level of abstraction to “right-wing strong-man government” to include Franco and others who often get hit with the label. Philosophically, there just isn’t much there in a universal sense, which has facilitated the term’s recent devolution into a vapid insult.
On the practical level, of course, fascism and Marxism wind up looking exactly the same except for the slogans. The supposed justification for one’s oppression doesn’t matter much when the rubber meets the road. As a historical observation, Supertradmum is correct, though, that the Church has suffered more, in general, under Marxism; that doesn’t mean I’m all keen on some other flavor of statism.
Even as recently as ten years ago, a speech such as this would have been almost unthinkable from a US bishop. Times are changing; I just hope it isn’t too late.
You know, before reading the post, I sat there, mystified by “D. Peoria” until it at last dawned on me that “D.” stood for “Diocese” and not “Democrat”!
Then I had a good laugh at my own stupidity. I’ve been watching too much coverage of politics, lately.
I can remember when I still lived in the Peoria Diocese, shortly after Bp. Jenky became bishop, he unloaded, so to speak, on a bar owner in Moline, Ill. who was planning to name his establishment the “Hail Mary Sports Bar and Grill,” or something similar. It was meant as a reference to the “Hail Mary pass,” of course, but Bp. Jenky didn’t see it that way and called the proposal “blasphemous” and insulting to Our Lady. The statement got lots of press, and the bar owner did eventually decide not to use the “Hail Mary” appellation. I guess that turned out to be a sign of things to come, and of a shepherd who did not hesistate to speak his mind.
I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I’m going to find out how I can send His Excellency a
thank-you note and perhaps some flowers for the altar of his choice. God bless the man.
He deserves our encouragement.
Yeeehaww! Another good bishop in the saddle! I’ve been worried about Bishop Bruskewitz getting close to retirement age (if not already there) and who could replace him in joining the ranks of faithful, courageous bishops like Archbishop Chaput, and the like. Looks like we have another good one in Bishop Jenky! We are at war, against principalities and powers, the powers of darkness and evil. We need good field commanders who have the courage to stand up and speak the truth without fear!
I went over and listened to the entire sermon, with the prolonged applause right after he excoriated Obama and his minions. OORAH, INDEED!
Bravo, Bishop Jenky!
Titus: I didn’t know that he ‘un-recknovated’ the interior of the Sacred Heart Basilica at ND!
A Double Bravo!
This is what we need to hear from our shepherds!