Restoring Subsidiarity, by Regis Nicoll

By Regis Nicoll, Crisis Magazine, Aug. 18, 2025

Regis Nicoll is a retired nuclear engineer and a fellow of the Colson Center who writes commentary on faith and culture. He is the author of Why There Is a God: And Why It Matters.

In the “Separation of Church and State,” has the state taken over the role of the Church in the wider culture?

The raft of executive orders aimed at scaling back government support for non-defense programs like welfare, health care, and foreign aid has led to everything from emotional stress to physical suffering and mortality for program dependents, as well as everything from criticism to contempt from those who consider those services the moral duty of government.

Similar convulsions are resulting from Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, border control, and bans on social service benefits to undocumented residents, including those that would restrict their children from public school education. The human impact of these actions underscores the need for a national conversation on the proper roles of the Church and state in humanitarian affairs. …

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