=Michael Mayo;10023857]As Catholic bishops, we renew traditional principles and values to guide budgetary deliberations:
If that is the case, they need to pay close attention to what is going on, not make off-hand political comments with little backing.
- Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.
I’d say that spending more money that you take in is a threat to human life and dignity.
Look at who lends us the money: China, which appoints its own church leaders and gender selective abortion. Then there is Japan, an aging, dying secular nation.
And how about other non-Catholic bond holders?
Would it benefit the Church’s stances around the globe to pay them trillions of dollars plus 20% interest?
- A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.
Either we can give a man a fish or teach him to fish.
American voters in 2012 chose the former.
- Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in a manner worthy of their dignity in difficult economic times.
Even if that means staying out of the way so the private sector can put people back to work?
If Catholic leaders want to get involved in this, they need to understand a couple of things.
- The catechism is against socialism and has a dim view on central planning
- We can have a roaring economy when government gets out of the way.
