In the long run, however, that temporal power was not stronger than the example of Stalin's Georgian mother—Svetlana's paternal grandmother. Read more

Today their odyssey was remembered on Wellington's waterfront as surviving Polish refugee children gathered for a wreath-laying with Polish foreign affairs minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who is visiting to mark the 40th anniversary of New Zealand-Poland diplomatic relations.

‘‘Today we are very grateful to the people of New Zealand who gave refuge to our children when they needed it - squeezed between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia they were the victims and orphans of the gulag,'' the minister said.

Among those attending were Eric and Halina Lepionka - two of the 733 child refugees who escaped war torn Europe and the Siberian forced labour camps where their parents were put to work by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Eric was eight when he arrived at the Pahiatua Children's Camp in 1944.

Halina was just a baby so it wasn't until years later that they met at the Empress Ballroom in Ghuznee St and later cemented their relationship at Sunday mass in Newtown's Polish church.

Mr Lepionka said the horrors and highlights of the journey - which took them from Siberia to modern day Iran, then to refuge in rural New Zealand - are in the back of his mind every day.

He remembered the minus 40 degrees Celsius Siberian winters.

‘‘When you slept you didn't lean against the wall because you'd stick to it... it's something that you only see in films,'' the 76-year-old retired builder said.

By train, cart and foot the 240,000 first transport of Polish deportees from Stalin's Siberian labour camps, both adults and children, painstakingly made their way to British-controlled Persia.

Mr Lepionka was then aged six, his mother died in Uzbekistan en route and his father returned to Poland after contracting typhoid - he never saw him again.

Up to 2 million Poles had been deported to the labour camps and some estimates put the survival rate at just 20 per cent. Continue reading

Sources

• Manawatu Standard
• Image: NZ History Online

The call comes in response to Jenky's homily in which he denounced President Obama's "radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda," comparing his approach to that of Hitler and Stalin.

"Jenky's comments demonstrate ignorance of history, insensitivity to victims of genocide and absence of judgment," the faculty said in a letter to the university's president and the chairman of the university's board of trustees.

"We accept that Jenky's comments are protected by the First Amendment, but we find it profoundly offensive that a member of our beloved University's highest authority, the Board of Fellows, should compare the president's actions with those whose genocidal policies murdered tens of millions of people, including the specific targeting of Catholics, Jews and other minorities for their faith."

"We request that you issue a statement on behalf of the University that will definitively distance Notre Dame from Jenky's incendiary statement," they added. "Further, we feel that it would be in the best interest of Notre Dame if Jenky resigned from the University's Board of Fellows if he is unwilling to renounce loudly and publicly this destructive analogy."

Bishop Jenky is a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which founded Notre Dame, he is a Notre Dame alumnus, a former director of campus ministry and is the sole bishop on both Notre Dame's board of trustees and board of fellows.

Sources

• The Observer
• LifeSite News
• Image: The Inquisitr

Bishop Jenky has come under fire for comparing President Barack Obama to being on "a similar path" as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

In his sermon, Jenky claimed that American Catholics are currently in a "war" due to the Obama administration's ruling on birth control and other issues.

"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," preached Jenky.

"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," Jenky added.

"May God have mercy especially on the souls of those 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."

Patricia Gibson, chancellor of the Peoria Diocese has sought to help clarify the bishop's comments.

"Based upon the current government's threatened infringement upon the Church's religious exercise of its ministry, Bishop Jenky offered historical context and comparisons as a means to prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church and other religions," said Gibson.

"Bishop Jenky gave several examples of times in history in which religious groups were persecuted because of what they believed," Gibson said.

"We certainly have not reached the same level of persecution. However, history teaches us to be cautious once we start down the path of limiting religious liberty."

However, Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Peoria's Anshai Emeth congregation said that "casual use of the Holocaust and tragedy in general is really inappropriate."

And, according to the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Bishop Jenky's homily clearly urged people not to vote for Obama in this year's presidential elections, which is in violation of a federal law stating that tax payer-funded organizations should not seek to influence electoral campaigns.

"To be sure, Jenky never utters the words 'Do not vote for Obama,'" Lynn told the Chicago Tribune. "But the Internal Revenue Code makes it clear that statements need not be this explicit to run afoul of the law."

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Chicago Tribune
• Global Christian Post
• Chicago Tribune
• Image: The Inquisitr