After I publicly appealed to the bishops of Malta and Gozo to stop the proposed buyout of HSBC by their bank, I was contacted by several high-powered individuals trying to persuade me to change my position. They are respected professionals who honestly believe that this deal will benefit the church and its bank.
I thank them for contacting me and respect their openness and sincerity. However, I strongly disagree with them. Their arguments were mainly financial and strategic, while my arguments were based on pastoral considerations emanating from the model of the church repeatedly preached by Pope Francis.
But like these professionals I agree that the church should reduce – I say totally divest itself of – its share in the ownership of a bank. The issue is about the method.
In 2022, APS Bank made a share offer which was quickly fully subscribed. As a result of the enlargement of the share base, the percentage of the church’s shareholding was reduced to around 70%. The takeover of HSBC is being considered as another step in this direction. I was told that the plan is for APS to buy HSBC, making it the second largest bank in Malta.
Step two of the plan, according to the people who talked to me, would be the selling of shares in such a way that the church’s shareholding in the new enlarged bank would be below 50%.
It seems that although the amount has not yet been decided it is planned to be such that the church would be able to exert a considerable influence, if not de facto control, on the running of this bank.
The mission of the church is evangelisation not the owning or controlling of banks. Neither is it to solve any banking issues following the exit of HSBC from Malta. That’s government duty not the church’s.
The whistle-blower who was informing me of proceedings says that those who signed a non-disclosure agreement to the tune of thousands of euros should remember the adviser who repeatedly reminded the church authorities of “the skeletons in the cupboard” – his words, not mine – that could be found and that would potentially damage the church’s reputation. The scandals that the Universal Church was embroiled in, thanks to its involvement in the Vatican Bank and other banks, should provide a stern warning.
The mission of the church is evangelisation not the owning or controlling of banks- Fr Joe Borg
In his excellent article on Wednesday, October 2, theologian Fr René Camilleri noted: “The market has its laws and rules. And if the church ventures into these waters, it must bow down to those laws and abide by those rules, irrespective of what it stands for.”
I had made this argument to the persons who had contacted me. Most said that everything will be alright, that there are no skeletons in any cupboard, and that they will abide by the market. However, one of the supporters of the deal conceded that the bank is a commercial bank and it cannot avoid following the market.
My conclusion takes inspiration from Pope Francis’s model of the church. Just three days after his election, he told thousands of journalists: “I would love a church that is a poor church and a church for the poor.”
During a homily in 2015, he affirmed that we must say “no to a church that is attached to money, which thinks of money, which thinks of how to earn money. A church that is truly faithful to the Lord must be humble, poor, and trusting in God.”
One can justifiably say that the church runs many initiatives in favour of the poor. Fine. But the provocative question for those who care about the teachings of Pope Francis is: will the buying of HSBC help it also be a poor church?