U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, overseer of the Vatican's highest court, recently accused President Barack Obama of impeding Christians' religious liberties, charging that he "promotes anti-life and anti-family policies."
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."
U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke in St Peter's Square after a cardinals' meeting on the eve of the start of a conclave on March 11, 2013 at the Vatican. (AFP/Getty Images/Johannes Eisele)
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."
President Barack Obama has grown "hostile toward Christian civilization, a prominent American cardinal charged. (AP)
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.
Read the entire interview, which was fully translated from Polish to English by Life Site News here.
Obama and Pope Francis are scheduled to meet Thursday at the Vatican.
(H/T: KMOX-TV)
