Kmiec: Obama ‘promotes social justice as if he were a Catholic’

October 31, 2012

Douglas Kmiec, the former law professor and pro-life theorist whose support for Barack Obama in 2008 shocked many of his fellow Catholics, lauded the president in a recent Los Angeles Times interview, saying that he “promotes social justice as if he were a Catholic.”

Kmiec, who resigned from his post as ambassador to Malta following a critical State Department report on his activities, said:

There are a few places where we had disagreements, [but] when you see someone who's devoted completely to people who have less than himself, who worries about our tax system and society and economic opportunities, how can you not be for those ideas and the person standing behind those ideas? So it's a no-brainer for me …

There is a tradition we trace back to Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, of the seamless garment — all life issues are interrelated: abortion, capital punishment, war, a family wage, the environment. You can't take these things apart. More and more Catholics understand that, but some very important Catholics are resistant.

“Everybody wants to solve [same-sex marriage] with law,” Kmiec added as he discussed same-sex marriage. “I don't need the state to define marriage for me. I need the state to treat citizens equally, to give everyone the benefit of the rule of law and not shape it to favor one side or the other. At the same time, give individual churches the opportunity to define marriage as they read their religious practices.”

 

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Further information:

• Douglas Kmiec on keeping the faith (Los Angeles Times)
• Kmiec: bias against religion led to resignation as ambassador (CWN, 4/27/11)