Go Bishop Go

Listening to this podcast has been on my to-do list for a couple of days, and I am now sorry that I waited so long.

On Saturday, hundreds of men gathered at the Cathedral in Peoria for the Annual Men's March.  Bishop Daniel Jenky addressed them in his homily, and took the last line of the Gospel from Mass “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” as a springboard to connect the disciples' reactions in the days following Easter, the spread of the early Church, and the battle that Christians are fighting today.

He spared no words and and held nothing back in describing the seriousness of the situation Catholics and other Christians are facing in America right now.  President Obama and his plan for health care are in serious violation of First Amendment rights, religious liberty, and moral standards. 

Bishop Jenky said these words about our current political situation:

"For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.

The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism.

And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.

The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.

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.

As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction."

Go, Jenky, Go!

The Bishop was honest about the possibilities we are facing, and the battle that we are fighting:

"Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral." 

But he concluded:

"We have nothing to fear, but we have a world to win for him. We have nothing to fear, for we have an eternal destiny in heaven. We have nothing to fear, though the earth may quake, kingdoms may rise and fall, demons may rage, but St. Michael the Archangel, and all the hosts of heaven, fight on our behalf.

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!

Christ wins! Christ reigns! Christ commands!"

The full text of the article can be found here:

And you can listen to the homily here: