Forgive Us Our Debts, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, June 22, 2022

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. …

One way of getting at what is objectionable in certain forms of individualism is to think about our lives in relation to debts.

A debt is something definite owed to another.  When someone owes us something, and is able to repay, but does not repay, then the question forces itself upon us: should we press somehow a case against this person (perhaps seeking to extract the repayment ourselves, and maybe only the grim repayment of revenge), or should we simply “write off” the debt, forgiving it? …

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