Father Robert Rien, of St Ignatius at
Antioch, a Catholic church east of San Francisco, speaks with a crisp buoyant
voice that belies his 65 years. When he is angry it fairly crackles.
This Lenten season he is angry at America's
big banks, so angry he has pulled all his parish's money out of the Bank of
America and opened accounts at a small local bank.
He has called on his flock to do the same and
joined a nationwide interfaith movement dedicated to divesting from the major
banks. They see Lent as the perfect time to spread the word.
''We have a mandate from the gospels to
act,'' says Father Rien.
''Jesus went to the temple and he challenged
the banking system of his day. He said, 'you are thieves and marauders, you are
wrong in what you are doing'.'' On Ash Wednesday this year a group of San
Francisco clergy spilled ashes outside a Wells Fargo ATM and called for a
foreclosure sabbatical, invoking the Biblical term for the ancient practice of
forgiving debts.
It is hard to exaggerate how poorly America's
banks have treated their customers throughout the financial crisis that saw
about 4 million homes being foreclosed upon, and Father Rien's voice crackles
away as he discusses it.
The banks helped precipitate the financial
collapse by selling mortgages to people who could never afford them. When the
financial system collapsed they accepted a $US205 billion ($199.2 billion)
bailout from taxpayers, but once refinanced they refused to help homeowners by
modifying their mortgages.
''I actually went to a meeting in Washington
and I said to Tim Geithner [the Treasury Secretary and author of the bank
bailout], that he had to make them help, but he said there was nothing he could
do. I was astounded,'' says Father Rien.
But
it was the outright fraud by America's big banks that finally made Father Rien
an activist for the first time since he was ordained 40 years ago.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/an-angry-priest-scatters-the-money-lenders-20120406-1wgro.html#ixzz1rOSlaihF
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