My God. Just when you thought the Catholic Church couldn’t sink any lower.

This past Sunday, an Illinois Catholic Bishop gave a homily comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin.

“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 over the weekend. “In clear violation of our constitutional rights, president Obama with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.”

Yes, I remember when Obama was a member of the Hitler Youth as a child. Oh, right…

But oh, it gets better.

When asked about the comments today, Chicago’s Catholic Cardinal George refused to condemn the words – hell, he wouldn’t even comment on them – then went off on an anti-Obama rant, thus signaling his tacit approval of the comments (he was basically saying that the Bishop wasn’t entirely wrong).

Chicago Francis Cardinal George declined to comment on the comparison but echoed some of the frustration Jenky expressed. “This is the first time in the history of our country where our very own government has told our Catholic institutions ‘If you’re going to operate in public, you can’t operate in a Catholic way, you have to give up your Catholic identity,’” George told CBS 2’s Mike Parker on Thursday.

And just what Catholic way is the cardinal talking about? Enabling the serial rape of small children for decades, and still not coming clean about it? Is that the Catholic way that Cardinal George is so proud of? It really steams me when Catholic leaders think they actually have any remaining moral authority after enabling the rape of children.

And Jenky has some chutzpah claiming that President Obama won’t tolerate any competition with the state on health care and social services. The Catholic church, via their Catholic Charities, sucks at the federal teat to the tune of nearly $3 billion dollars a year, of your money. Somehow I think the Catholic church is doing just fine competing with the federal government – if you can call a $3bn taxpayer subsidy from the US government “competition.”

And while the Catholic Church is apparently fine comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin, and the serial rape of small children, they do not tolerate nuns. This gets quite interesting in fact. You see, the nuns’ sins were, among other things, disagreeing with the bishops’ opposition to health care reform.

The sisters were also reprimanded for making public statements that “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.” During the debate over the health care overhaul in 2010, American bishops came out in opposition to the health plan, but dozens of sisters, many of whom belong to the Leadership Conference, signed a statement supporting it — support that provided crucial cover for the Obama administration in the battle over health care.

Did you catch that? The Catholic bishops “are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.” Authentic teachers of faith. So what the bishops say, goes. So when Bishop Jenky said that President Obama was like Hitler and Stalin, his words were authentic, because you don’t question a bishop.

So the nuns question bishops for trying to stop poor people from getting health insurance, and the nuns get punished for it. And the Cardinal refuses to question the bishop for comparing the President of the United States to Hitler and Stalin because – wait for it – the President wants to help poor people get health insurance.

Anyone else see a pattern?