The overseer of the Vatican’s highest court, U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, has correctly accused President of the United States, Barack Obama, of impeding Christians’ religious liberties, charging that he “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
The cardinal is voicing what many Christians, American and otherwise, have been thinking for some time now.
Burke, who serves as the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, said during an interview with Polonia Christiana Magazine that Obama’s policies have been increasingly unfriendly toward Christians.
“It is true that the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Burke said. “He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
Such observations follow statements by the president that abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood are doing “God’s work” and actions like forcing catholic nuns, Hobby Lobby and other religious based groups to provide abortion causing drugs in direct opposition to the constitution.
Burke’s comments came after the interviewer proclaimed that Obama’s policy toward “the Christian civilization” is becoming “more and more aggressive” and asked whether Burke believes that there has been notable Catholic reaction to these intrusions.
“Now [Obama] wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that one is free to act according to his conscience within the confines of his place of worship but that, once the person leaves the place of worship, the government can constrain him to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions,” the cardinal continued. “Such policies would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago.”
While he said U.S. Catholics are reacting to “ever-growing religious persecution,” he believes that a large proportion of the population is unaware of what is happening.
“It is my hope that more and more of my fellow citizens, as they realize what is happening, will insist on electing leaders who respect the truth of the moral law as it is respected in the founding principles of our nation,” Burke added.
Burke is not alone in his observations. We have long said that as the Spirit of the Lord is rejected, liberty will fade.
