In a sharply-worded attack on President Obama’s “war” on religion, a major Catholic leader today said church members should never give in to the “heavy hand of government,” and he offered a prayer for “those who hate” Catholics.
At the 8th Annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Carl Anderson, CEO and Chairman of the 1.8 million-member Knights of Columbus compared Obama to British royalty who beheaded martyr St. Thomas More in 1535 for his supporting the pope over the king.
“To be true witnesses we must preserve our Catholic identity–like St. Thomas More–preserve it especially from the heavy hand of government,” said Anderson, who quoted from the prayer More wrote while awaiting execution in the Tower of London.
In his full address at this morning’s prayer breakfast (an earlier Secrets story was based on excerpts) Anderson cited multiple cases of Obama’s effort to attack the church, most notably his administration’s demand that most employers–even Catholic ones–provide health insurance that covers birth control and abortion services despite their moral opposition.
“It may have gotten the most attention, but it wasn’t the first,” he said, citing other examples where the administration has challenged the autonomy of churches and religious institutions.
He noted that even Jesus couldn’t meet the government’s health care mandate, and he called for prayer to change the minds of those who “hate” Catholics. “Christians are called to reach beyond their own denominations in teaching ‘all nations,’ considering everyone their ‘neighbor,’ and doing ‘good to those who hate’ them,” said Anderson.
But he warned that the administration’s goal is to change religion. “A government willing to affect the faith and mission of the church is a government willing to change the identity of the church,” he warned. “We see a new government intolerance of religion,” he added, referencing the health insurance mandate.
Concluding, Anderson said, “What kind of Catholics to they think we are? Do they really expect us to go gently into that dark night they are preparing for religious liberty in America? Do they not know that people who believe in ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church’ can never agree to compromising our Church by entangling it in intrinsically evil acts? Do they not see that faithful Catholics will never accept cynical political strategies of ‘divide and conquer’ to separate us from our bishops?”
