[don-o]

Even though there were areas of disagreement, Mr Obama pointed out the responsibility of government to provide a family wage, to care for the environment and to provide healthcare for the uninsured.

Is it indeed the teaching of the church that the government bears responsibility for these things? I think I know the answer.

And the followup question would be: How does a supposedly intelligent Catholic get so far off the rails?

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Is it indeed the teaching of the church that the government bears responsibility for health care?"

Kmiec is obvisouly confused about Catholic Social Teaching, and especially about the hugely important distinction between "society" and "the state."

If we say that "society" must strive for the common good in relation to healtcare (or water quality, or cinema and broadcast entertainment, or neighborhood safety, or early childhood education, or anything else), we must emphasize that "society" consists of every form of human organization, beginning with the marital couple and the family, and extending through workplaces, businesses, nonprofits, labor organizations, trade associations, professional groups, parishes, schools, fraternal and civic associations, philanthopic and charitable groups, clubs, partnerships, city and county governments, etc. etc. etc. with special emphasis on that third etcetera.

All of these are not, collectively, "the state"; they are prior to and more important than "the state": they constitute "society." And "the state" cannot justly invade and absorb the functions of "society."

It is because "society" must strive for the common good in relation to healthcare, that spouses care for each other in sickness and in health; that parents care for dependent children; that adult children care for aged and dependent elders; that parishes hire parish nurses. It is because of "society's" duty to care for the sick, that Catholic religious orders the United States in the last 150 years founded and staffed the largest non-government hospital system in the world.

Part of "society's" role is exemplified by employers offering group insurance coverage; students deciding to enter the medical professions; inventors seeking patents for new therapeutic devices, and investors committing money to the development, production, and sale of these devices---as I said, "etc. etc."

I'm trying to suggest a crowded Bruegels canvas

showing hundreds and thousands of people individually and jointly doing their thing, resulting in people in their "common associations" achieving the "common good."

This multiplex, layered society, each unit having its own proper gifts, opportunities, and obligations, is the context for all the Church's teachings on Social Justice.

Somebody should tell Doug Kmiec.

I seem to have a vocation in Remedial Catechism.