The Bernardin Factor

During Obama's Notre Dame speech he mentioned the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin several times, whom the New York Times described as a voice of reconciliation. It's not hard to see why Obama would be drawn to him but perhaps there's another reason he dropped the name. Here's Amanda Carpenter reminding everyone in 2006 about the "Bernardin Amendment":

As an Illinois senator, Obama introduced the “Bernardin Amendment,” which would have inserted language from a pastoral letter by the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernardin into a universal health care program. The amendment contained Bernardin’s line: “Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity, and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person is able to realize that right.” The bill, which did not pass, was to be funded with money taken from tobacco companies.

What better place to field test a religious approach to socialized medicine than at Notre Dame?

If nothing else, that knowledge should give us faith that through our collective labor, and God’s Providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that more perfect union.

Shouldering each other's burdens sounds inspirational until one digs down a few inches to find the rocky collectivist subsoil. America was founded on rugged individualism and the rights of the individual to pursue happiness, which may not always be defined as shouldering their neighbor's burdens or mortage payments. Or did Reverend Wright already clear all that up?