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Opinion • November 14 2004


The Bank of the Catholic Church

About two weeks ago the Archdiocese of Malta published its annual financial report for the year 2003. The report, among other things, states the Church raised more than two and a half million Maltese Liri in investments, deposits and loans which was due to an increase in dividends from the shares at APS Bank, of which the Church holds 83 per cent of the issued share capital. The APS Bank is precisely the crux of the subject that I wish to share with you today.
The idea that the Church is authorised by the Vatican to do business and inject the savings of our Catholic forefathers, I find it very hard to digest. I know for a fact that these poor people were fooled into believing that if they deposit their monies or bequeath their wealth to the Apostleship of Prayer Savings Bank they will be helping the church in the sponsorship of more priesthood and in the conversion of those who have not as yet met Jesus Christ.
But the Catholic Church, with a stroke of the pen, and against the wishes of the testators, in 1990 decided unilaterally to convert the bank into a commercial bank and as if to please God and the devil at the same times, changed the name to the three initials of ‘Apostleship of Savings’ and the name of the bank was changed to APS Bank. As if there is an apostleship in the savings that one has in the bank. To add insult to injury, the same bank has now decided to introduce investment services to its clients and is now operating as a fully-fledged commercial bank to all intents and purposes.
We cannot forget the promise that the Church made us Catholics in 1990 when it promised us the Bank was going to be a ‘temporary measure.’ Neither can we forget the protests, silent or loud, of some of the Catholic priests when the Church decided to seek business pastures and commercialise the bank. I still recall the protests made by Dun Ang Seychell in this respect and with which I fully concur because the role of the Church is not to invest in business ventures but to invest in the conversion of souls. It must be noted that the original purpose of the bank when it was set up in 1910 - then known as the Cassa di Risparmio dello Apostolato della Preghiera - was precisely to inculcate savings habits amongst the working classes of the population. As the website of the bank itself states, the motivation was a desire to instil among the working classes a consciousness of the social teaching of the Catholic Church and to put it into practice.
How the APS Bank, as we know it today, is living up to this expectation I do not know because the social teaching of the Catholic Church does not come into play at the Bank at all. If a Catholic does not have sufficient security for a loan, the bank does not grant any lending facility. The bank is run on commercial basis as all other commercial banks in Malta and there is nothing which distinguishes it from the rest. That is why I firmly believe that the name of the bank whose initials refer to apostleship of savings do not befit the bank because there is no apostleship in the system at all.
If I am not mistaken, the word ‘apostle’ comes from ‘apostolos’ which in the Greek, means “an ambassador; one who is sent; a delegated authority.”
The word was used for high-ranking naval officers in classical Greek times. An apostle of Jesus Christ was the highest ranking official in the local churches, 1 Cor. 12:28. Apostles of Jesus Christ were appointed by God the Father for the purpose of establishing churches and spreading the new truth, Eph. 3:1-10. There was both the spiritual gift and the office of apostleship. The spiritual gift was the divine enabling to function as an apostle, Eph. 4:11, 1 Cor. 28,29. The office of apostleship was the authority to function as an apostle, Rom. 1.5, ACTS 1:25, GAL. 2:8.
What connection there is between apostleship, as intended by Jesus Christ, and the apostleship of savings of the Maltese Catholic Church I do not know. In effect I find it hard to digest how our Catholic Church could give its blessing for something as purely lay and pagan as a commercial bank to be referred to as an ‘apostleship.’ It is true the bank has changed the name to the initials of apostleship of savings, but the point remains that this bank was set up by a group of people who were led by the Jesuit Fr Michael Vella in 1910 to “instil among the working classes of the population a consciousness of the social teaching of the Catholic Church and to put it into practice” – quote the APS web site. The purpose was not to set up a commercial bank and the money bequeathed by our forefathers, who have toiled and remained without food and clothes, to save money for the Church. They never wanted their money to be the object of investment and other capital ventures.
To add insult to injury, the Church has still not found a director who is pro-left and competent for the job. As you may well be aware, the Board of Directors is composed of Prof Emanuel P Delia as Chairman, Joseph C Caruana, Rev Canon Carmel Curmi, Dr Arthur Galea Salomone, Joseph Kenely, Frederick F Micallef and Joe Pace Ross as directors. Some of them are very familiar with us because they have held or still hold government appointments. It is a shame that the Catholic Church, whose commitment is towards all Catholics, irrespective of their political leanings, has never appointed a person with pro-left tendencies as one of its directors.
If it was a bank where the government or any other company was the major shareholder I would not dare to interfere in its administration. But as a Catholic and because I know that the Catholic church in Malta has promised us that the setting up of the APS Bank was a temporary measure, I cannot leave the issue unattended. Fourteen years since its inception, there is no indication that the bank is not there to stay and hence, the Church must be honest with us and tell us straight and plain, what its plans are regarding the APS bank and whether it has converted the original idea of this being a temporary measure into a permanent one.
We Catholics have a right to know, just as we have the right to know if it is true that all immovable property inherited by the Church is being passed on to the government in accordance with the Church-State agreement. I augur that the latter is just a rumour, but if it is true, I think it is only fair that the public should be made aware of the fact so that it will not be misled into believing it is bequeathing immovable property to the Catholic Church when in effect the property is being bequeathed to the Government.
It is about time that the Catholic Church takes a clear stand both as regards the APS bank and the inheritance of immovable property. We need to know whether the bank is there to stay and whether it can keep the property that it inherits. If the APS bank is there to stay, then the testators who bequeathed their monies to the church for the social and religious teaching of the Catholic Church were all taken for a ride!

 





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