Archbishop Charles Scicluna on Sunday has strong words for loan sharks who were pushing people to their limits, cursing their profits and warning them that they had God to answer to. 

In his homily during the weekly Sunday Mass, Scicluna there were some who were charging way more than the eight per cent permitted by law, sometimes even 20 or 30 per cent. 

Pointing at them and staring at them in the eye through the camera, the archbishop said: “You will be accountable to God for bringing people to the brink of collapse. Some end their lives because they cannot pay the debt racked up through usury. Jesus’s commandment is not in the air. I am warning those who are usurping and beating our people by fattening their pockets: that money is cursed and I curse them too.”

“Lending is an act of mercy. But to ask for another €100 for every €100 you gave is theft. It’s sinful. There are people who do not make ends meet and make it to the end of the month by borrowing from these people who in return ask for people’s gold, not just as a pledge but as payment, over and above the repayments,” he said. 

“There are those who are victims of usury because their business was going south or because of gambling addiction. In any case, when a person knocks on your door and asks you to borrow money, you will be going against the law and ask for more than the eight per cent allowed by the law,” the archbishop warned. 

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