Group wants bishop to apologize for Obama comments

PEORIA — The Anti-Defamation League wants an Illinois bishop to apologize for a homily that compared President Barack Obama’s heath care policies to actions by Adolf Hitler, but a diocese spokeswoman says the comments were intended as historical context.

Peoria Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky said Sunday that Obama is following previous governments that “tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches.” He pointed to Hitler in Germany and Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union.

ADL Regional Director Lonnie Nasatir said Thursday that Jenky needs a history lesson on the “religious intolerance and anti-Semitism fostered in society” by Hitler and Stalin.

Diocesan Chancellor Patricia Gibson, however, says Jenky offered the comparisons to “prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church and other religions.”