Knights of St Columba (486) forum

John489 · Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Posts: 1 Location: St Annes

In the November mailshot the director of Welfare and Spirituality wrote about the Debt.

I am an advisor with the Citizens Advice Bureaux and can reccommend their services to anyone who is experiencing debt problems. the service they offer is free totally confidential and impartial

admin · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject: Personal Debt

Many thanks John,
I took note of the inclusion within the bulletin. The UK has the worst personal debt problems in the whole of Europe, wasnt it something in the trillions of pounds owed?

This has surely been compounded by the recent economic downturn. Job loses leading to the inability to repay. In the news, it was claimed also that the amount of house repossessions went up by more than 100% in 2008 as a yearly average, set to rise further in 2009.

The problems discussed will surely relate to alot of us in one way or another. It is such a saving grace to know that there are services out there who give guidance in such matters, even more so that we have one of our own who can give professional advice.

Money worries account for 70% of family disruption and unrest. We as knights have brothers welfare as a huge part of our remit. Therefore I urge all who need the advice of Bro. John, contact him.

Thanks and God Bless Bro. John,

Bro. Lewis GK (486)

Willie Duff · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:56 pm Post subject: Credit Crunch and the banks

Hi Bros,

Greetings from Province 3 (small but kicking!).

My view of the credit crunch and the banking debacle is that it is a sign of a deep seated spiritual problem that, in this instance, stems from greed. I can remember the like of Ivan Boesky during the eighties (this was the person whose character was the basis for the villain (Gecko) in the movie Wall Street). He went around giving talks (not for free, of course) and he stated, "Greed is good!" and people listened to him! It later transpired that his 'financial genius' stemmed from old fashioned insider trading and he got caught. The up shot was that he got a lighter than expected sentence by 'squealing' on everybody he knew was also corrupt (a real friend indeed).

I believe that we have gone through 20 plus years of greed being king with the loss of more and more financial regulation over the period until we have a mirror image of the Wall Street crash in front of us. The result is that ordinary, hard working folks lose their savings, their jobs and their homes while the villains, the great and the good (sic!), have already left the stage.

We need to pray earnestly for a return to a more balanced state for our communities. A system to be introduced where investments are undertaken by people who have to invest a proportion of their own money along with their clients so that they equally share the pain, as well as the gain. It is only by being in the other guys shoes that we can have a true sense of spiritual balance and a return to a sense of, not them and us, but just us!

God Bless you and yours. Rolling Eyes

_________________
God Bless and Fraternally,

Bro Willie Duff

Damian Dillon 192 · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:43 pm Post subject:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O Connor was interviewed about the current climate for the times and here is the link -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5728972.ece