Well done. May I add, however, that in my opinion, because government “does” so much these days for the “poor” that we are not as conscious as we ought to be of their existence. I have been a volunteer at times where we find that our services are pre-empted by some government program or are supplemented in some way so as to lessen both the impact of the voluntarism and the motivation for volunteering. I wish the Church would take back more of this work from the State—and too often, the Church has been anxious itself to benefit from government handouts, which has diminished its capacity to help.
I couldn’t agree more.
It is incumbent upon the Church to do more, much more. We do much already but it is never enough and our work is never done.
The difference is that the Church is an all volunteer effort based on love and the State uses coercion to achieve its means. Well, in Biden’s words, it’s not coercion, it’s a patriotic duty... a very clever way to justify a welfare state built on coercion.