Peoria Catholic Bishop Blurs Separation Of Church And State Again

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 2, 2012 9:20PM

Peoria Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky, who reaped a whirlwind in April for comparing the health care policies of the Obama administration to the actions of historic despots—notably Hitler and Stalin—who persecuted the church over the years, is at it again.

Earlier this week Jenky issued a letter to be read at churches at his diocese this weekend urging members of the diocese to head to the polls next week. Though Jenky doesn’t endorse or condemn a politician by name in the letter, it’s pretty clear to even a blind man how he’s hoping his flock will vote when he writes “Be faithful to Christ and to your Catholic Faith.” Here’s a choice excerpt from the letter, which can be read in full here.

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. . . . 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.

Jenky also ordered the letter to be read “by virtue of your vow of obedience to me as your Bishop.” We don't know how in lock step the Peoria diocese is with Jenky, but 82 percent of Catholics believe contraception is morally acceptable despite the ongoing fight of the church to avoid providing it as part of their health care plans. 54 percent of Catholics believe religiously affiliated organizations should provide health care coverage. Even Pope Benedict XVI said condoms "where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality."