Obama's Easter Proclamation

by Michael Sean Winters

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Several conservative Catholic sites such as the American Papist and LifeSiteNews are beating their anti-Obama drums by calling attention to a Fox News report that President Obama did not issue an "Easter proclamation" even though he has issued statements to commemorate the holidays of other, non-Christian religions. You can easily imagine the right-wingers confirming the story, "I saw it on Fox, so it must be true." Alas, it is not true.
Presidents do not issue "proclamations" for religious holidays except Thanksgiving. They do, however, often issue statements to acknowledge that a given day is special to certain Americans for religious (or ethnic) reasons. The President, of course, did not issue a written statement because he gave a speech at a prayer breakfast to commemorate Easter, which was held at the White House last Tuesday. Among others, two cardinals and several Catholic bishops were in attendance. I reported on the event and published the text of the President's remarks here.
But the anti-Obama crowd is not often concerned with veracity, or even common decency. Their hatred is palpable and they will believe and repeat any canard.

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