Credibility is built slowly, but quickly lost. Institutions like the Church depend on credibility. The Church all over the world has had quite a battering in this area over the last couple of decades. Credibility gaps ultimately weaken the authority of the Gospel message, and undermine trust not only in the institutions, but in the message itself. People often do not discriminate between the message, the messenger and the way the message is conveyed. That in itself is tragic.
For example, the Canadian Church’s credibility was shot to pieces recently when it was discovered that moneys allotted for residential school survivors were used to pay for legal services. Back in 2008, Mexican bishops’ denial that drug traffickers financed church buildings and restorations did not dispel the popular myth of ‘narco-charity’. Pope Francis has stressed the need to distance the Church from dubious sources of funding, scandal and lack of accountability. His reforms of the Church’s financial institutions has been relentless. The London property scandal, currently under trial in the Vatican, shows its determination to put its house in order. Few would disagree that financial transparency and accountability lead to enhanced credibility. But comes at a price.
The current local climate of increased due diligence is affecting many Church entities too. Most are registered as NGOs or associations: they are the subject of increased financial scrutiny and repeated demands by banks and financial institutions for more information about sources of funds.
Rightly so, but for small organisations, it is yet another administrative burden to bear with human resources already stretched. Yet it is on this type of diligence and transparency that the Church’s credibility hinges.
During the last decade, there has been a rise in partnerships between the Maltese state and Church in the area of social services traditionally initiated by the latter. The state has understood that it retains the primary obligation to help services such as children’s homes, homes for the elderly, Id-Dar tal-Providenza, and Caritas, to mention some very successful partnership stories. Without this support, these institutions would not survive. In other cases, Church property was granted for the use of charitable initiatives such as Hospice Malta, with government footing part of their substantial running costs.
At stake in such instances is the credibility of both the Church and the state. For these joint ventures to last and become more fruitful, transparency remains the order of the day. To ensure the future of its services and keep them at a high standard, the Church needs to be remain fully open and transparent with how money granted to it is spent. This is very much the case as shown in the published audited accounts of the Church in Malta.
On the other hand the Church should not accept funds from entities and donors if their provenance is suspect or dubious. Similarly the state does well to expect the Church and its services to be open to scrutiny. This type of mutual understanding engenders further trust and transparency. Its absence becomes an erosion of credibility that the Church can ill afford.
Fr Frankie Cini, member, Missionary Society of St Paul