Bishop Slammed for Nazi Health Law Comparison
An address by a Roman Catholic bishop that compared President Obama’s health care policies to Hitler’s actions did not play well in Peoria.
The Anti Defamation League has called on Peoria Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky to apologize for statements in his April 15 homily, which ADL Regional Director Lonnie Nasatir told the Chicago Tribune were “completely over the top.”
Jenky referred to Obama’s policies, as one of many government challenges through the centuries that the Catholic Church has had to deal with.
“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,” Jenky said in his homily at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.
“Clearly, Bishop Jenky needs a history lesson,” Nasatir told the Tribune. “There are few, if any, parallels in history to the religious intolerance and anti-Semitism fostered in society by Stalin, and especially Hitler, who under his regime perpetuated the open persecution and ultimate genocide of Jews, Catholics and many other minorities.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
