Bishop Daniel Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria told 500 men at a recent men’s march that the time has come for “heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism.”

Catholic Culture.org is reporting that Bishop Jenky was addressing the men who attended the diocese’s annual men’s march and Mass when he delivered a rousing homily that has become the talk of the internet.

“We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead [must] be Catholics by conviction. In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work–like that very first apostolic generation–we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.”

Bishop Jenky went on to dismiss the persecution in the world that “will always hate us,” including the disdain of President Barack Obama.

“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.”

He went on to beg for God’s mercy on the souls of 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.”

Bishop Jenky then took aim at the current administration. He referred to the persecution of the Church in France in the early twentieth century, saying that “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. 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.”

While this is a battle the Church could lose in America, before the judgment seat of God, it is not a war where any believing Catholic can remain neutral, he said.

“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. 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 concluded:

“The Risen Christ is our Eternal Lord; the Head of his Body, the Church; our High Priest; our Teacher; our Captain in the well-fought fight. 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.”

He ended with the rousing cry: “Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! Christ wins! Christ reigns! Christ commands!”

Click here to read the full text of Bishop Jenky’s remarks.

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