There is delight in giving

The Church is not a business entity. And yet it too has to use financial jargon, announcing over the weekend that it had incurred a loss of over €1 million during 2008. The term "loss" had better be replaced with "deficit" since the Church is not out to make a profit, the opposite of "loss".

She is there to carry out her mission to preach the word of God, as well as to offer services to the old, the young and the disabled. The Church blazed the way when it came to offering shelter and succour to the old. That role has been complemented by the State, and on a fee-paying basis by a widespread private sector. But the service still exists, although it is increasingly streamlined and payment of a subsidised fee can no longer be avoided.

As for the disabled, the Church offers a major example of loving and caring with Id-Dar tal-Providenza. It is ironic, therefore, that among the contributors to the 2008 deficit there was included that institution, which accounted for €100,000 in the shortfall between income and expenditure.

Dar tal-Providenza suffered a decline in contributions of €800,000. In giving its account for 2008 the Church did not go into possible reasons for the fall. It also reported that parish collections rose by three per cent and donations decreased - by €257,000 from 2007.

These downturns are worrying to the Church, which spends about €23 million annually on her activities, which also include running children's homes. An early reaction in trying to assess why donations fell is to point a finger at the introduction of the euro in place of the Malta Lira. The lower denomination euro might tend one to contribute €5 were one used to give Lm5.

Yet that does not seem to be the case, at least not right across the board. Since Church collections rose that suggests people adjusted their contributions to take into account the euro factor. So why did Dar tal-Providenza suffer such a sharp drop in contributions? Two main reasons might be in play.

One is the household financial squeeze which was already in evidence during 2008. People felt less well off, if not downright tight, so they cut back on donations.

The other reason could be the competitive collections by institutions which offer services to the disabled and, perhaps more so, by the political parties. Requests for donations by these two sectors are endless, and will continue.

Perhaps it is more important to look at how much the Maltese people dip their hands into their pockets to give, rather than to the outturn for one single year. Fact is, the Maltese people are very generous when it comes to helping others. We never fail to respond to appeals made by activists among people abroad who are still among the wretched of the earth.

And the rate of assistance to Church and other institutions remains high. Even in terms of assistance through helping out with one's time, the rate is high. The Church financial report recorded that there are about 50,000 voluntary lay workers.

That is very substantial. Other institutions, like Inspire, with which I am connected, also attract considerable voluntary help which eases the financial burden they have to finance, aided also in useful part through donations.

May the spirit of generosity always prevail. The coming four weeks are the time to give further evidence of it. Dar tal-Providenza and other institutions will be gently reminding us of their needs. President George Abela and his helpers are going flat out to raise money for the Community Chest Funds.

There are indications that the public response will be good. May it be better than that. By giving, we receive one of the greatest satisfactions of all.