I had promised to write about the Vocation of Fatherhood, but since the economy has been on everyone's mind, I hope you will allow me to add my "two cents." The just distribution of financial and material goods is very much a Catholic issue, and certainly the happenings of the past week have a direct impact on all fathers as they seek to provide for their families, save for their children's college and plan for retirement.

My friends at Headline Bistro (a news site also sponsored by the Knights of Columbus) have posted some insightful items on the Wall Street meltdown from a Catholic social justice perspective, and I encourage you to visit that site also.

Let me stipulate from the outset that I have no professional credentials in economics. I sat through an Economics 101 elective in college (many moons ago) and concluded that either I was dumb or the professor had no idea about the real world of dollars and common sense. Given the recent bank failings and bailouts, perhaps the lack of an MBA is a pretty good recommendation these days.

After all, my wife and I run a "small business" called a family and we have no debt outside of the 15 years left on our 20-year mortgage. Like millions of middle class American parents, we work hard and don't buy anything we cannot afford. We learned that practice from our parents, and we want to pass that discipline on to our own children.

Signs of Disaster

Like millions of other ordinary citizens, I saw the current crack-up coming. Like most other people, however, I assumed the Washington and Wall Street experts saw the same thing and had a plan for the future.

My story is simple. When my wife and I applied for a mortgage to buy our first house in 2001, the broker asked lots of questions, the bank demanded documents and everyone seemed at least a little bit interested in finding out if we could pay back the loan.

Two years, later, as interest rates were falling and the whole country was refinancing, our broker and bank barely asked a question when we got a new mortgage at a lower rate. In the course of a few short years, we got letters from our lender at the time telling us our mortgage had been sold to another company -- and then another and another. To me, it seemed the whole system was involved in a feeding frenzy of fast deals and quick commissions. But what did I know? My master's is in theology!

Well, it seems now that the most basic principle of religion -- do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- would have done our financial institutions a lot better than the most complex knowledge of marginal interest rates and microeconomics. We have forgotten that the economy is for man not man for the economy, and have allowed those closest to the money till to operate more in their own interests than in the interests of the average folks who invest their money.

We all know who held the money bag for the Apostles and how Judas went from a trader to a traitor due to the love of money.

I remarked one day to a friend who works for a prestigious financial institution that our economy seems like a game of hot potato. All these bankers are passing the hot loans around, making commissions, and hoping they will not be left holding the potato when the whistle ends the game. My friend, who rates funds for a living, said that was a pretty good description.

Whatever the root causes of the current economic meltdown that will affect every American and his children's children for decades to come, it is fair to say that the people at the wheels have not operated according to the principle of do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

By God's grace, it's not too late to start.