Comments last weekend by Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky cast into doubt the future of all social services the Diocese of Peoria offers, while comparisons he made between President Barack Obama's attitude toward religious freedom and the policies of historical figures including Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler have created a firestorm of controversy.

Comments last weekend by Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky cast into doubt the future of all social services the Diocese of Peoria offers, while comparisons he made between President Barack Obama's attitude toward religious freedom and the policies of historical figures including Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler have created a firestorm of controversy.

In his homily at the Mass associated with the Diocese's annual men's march in Peoria, Jenky raised the prospect that all Catholic social services, outreach and ministry outside of churches themselves might go away if President Barack Obama is re-elected and his administration continues to push for controversial provisions of its health insurance mandate requiring coverage of procedures the Catholic Church finds deeply objectionable.

"This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries - only excepting our church buildings - could easily be shut down," Jenky said. "Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.

"No Catholic ministry - and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries - can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions," he continued.

What does that mean for the future of those plethora of institutions people in central Illinois have come to rely upon?

"Because the Catholic Church cannot violate its principles, Bishop Jenky is concerned that the Catholic Church cannot continue its ministry if it is required to violate its own religious beliefs" by being required to provide to its employees health insurance covering procedures including abortion, Diocesean Chancellor Patricia Gibson said Wednesday night. "It just doesn't allow us to continue in many ways because it's affecting what ministry is."

Similar statements have previously come from Catholic and other religious organizations about the much-debated Department of Health and Human Services requirements, though this one cast more immediate doubts on the continuation of a number of area services that has not yet been quantified - and implied the matter rested to some degree on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.

Historical parallels?

In the same homily, Jenky suggested that the fight over religious freedom and Obama's policies showed parallels to policies imposed by a series of deeply controversial historical figures.

"In the late 19th century, (German Chancellor Otto Von) Bismarck waged his 'Kulturkampf,' a culture war, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany," he said. "(French Premier Georges) Clemenceau, nicknamed 'the priest eater,' tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th century.

"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 continued. "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."

Gibson said that many people have "taken out of context" what Jenky said in that portion of his presentation.

Those statements don't reflect a direct comparison, she said, but a reference to the fact that "our country is starting down a dangerous path that we've seen before in history.

"We have currently not reached the same level of persecution," she said. "But Bishop Jenky would say that history teaches us to be cautious. ... (He) is concerned that our government is truly treading on one of our most dear freedoms, which is religious freedom."

Appropriate comparison?

Though Jenky did not specifically reference the Holocaust, the specific reference to Hitler and his policies relating to religious freedom in the bishop's comments drew a passionate rebuke from Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Peoria's oldest Jewish congregation, Anshai Emeth.

"I think that casual use of the Holocaust and tragedy in general is really inappropriate," he said. "It's demagoguery. These are very serious things. You make light of them when you compare them to regulatory issues of insurance providing birth control."

Moreover, the timing of the remarks, coming just days before the annual observance of Yom HaShoah, the day Jews mark the remembrance of the lives lost in the Holocaust, was inappropriate, Bogard said. That observance began Wednesday evening.

"The Holocaust is not his to use," he said.

Bogard said he also objected to those historical comparisons being injected "as a partisan political ploy that just trivializes the memory of 13 million innocents killed."

Gibson said the Diocese planned a further, written response to the matter Thursday.

Chris Kaergard can be reached at 686-3135 or ckaergard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.