It often occurs to me that our current generations have been pulled into debt slavery by unscrupulous and unregulated debt/credit cards, who are predators on people.
Religious orders try to respond to the need of the times. This is a huge need, and keeping many people in creditor slavery.
We have huge financial institutions who practicing “usury” which was forbidden by the Bible itself. Sudden jumps in amounts due, if overdue, to 30% interest. It is sickening. It is entrapping and disabling people.
The generation in their 80s were not subjected to this. Banks were very cautious to give out loans, and tried to establish the probability of it being paid back. They never were victim to this unscrupulous credit card attack on our population. I think if we pulled the string to who is behind this attack, we might be surprised how deliberate it is.
That is no longer the case, and thus the mortgage crisis, with people getting in over their heads and losing their homes.
The Church could actually take this on as a cause and rather than beating down those in credit slavery, or turning them away as losers, they could give them shelter, and provide group housing with very inexpensive rooms and call them St. Benedict Houses, where they could live, pray together, study Scripture at night together, go to daily Mass, have a monk/priest as house father, have a chapel and adoration room, and grow in their vocation and spiritual life.
They may be able to pay back a majority of their debt in 2-3 years, and have grown spiritually tremendously. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?
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God bless all those with vocations and struggling against this unscruplous tide of financial slavery sweeping our nation.
