Search the Catechism, the Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine, indeed the entire Vatican website – search all you want – for teaching about what we call the “national debt.” You will not find it. You can find teaching about the debt that poorer nations owe to wealthier nations, “foreign debt,” but not about the debt that a government accumulates through financing deficits.
Some background: Each year the U.S. federal government spends roughly $2 trillion more than it takes in and issues bonds to finance this deficit. Each year’s deficit, when not repaid, gets added to the “national debt.” Last week this accumulated debt made headlines for topping $40 trillion. In four years or so, it will be $50 trillion. Current debt represents about seven times the government’s annual revenue. The proportion is as if a husband and wife who together earned $50,000 per year had credit card debts of $350,000.
Imagine a couple like that who hardly ever paid attention to their massive debt. When they did, they couldn’t agree on a plan to keep the debt from growing, because they were constantly fighting and had their own pet projects. That’s our government.
People say, “But the government is
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