Divorce lobby unfazed by reports of €250,000 Church donation for ‘No’ campaign

One News’s report was not met with a denial by Kevin Papagiorcopulo, the Church’s public relations officer who has returned to work with the Curia after spending a month campaigning with Zwieg Bla Divorzju.

On the other hand, Andre Camilleri – the movement’s figurehead – is adamant about not taking questions on matters not related to his professional role as deputy chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority.

And Arthur Galea Salomone, the Stock Exchange chairman who in the last weeks of the divorce referendum campaign took over as figurehead from Camilleri, has told this newspaper that the origins of the funding will be revealed “in due course.”

Camilleri had told The Times that Zwieg Bla Divorzju received “a lot of help from people who have certain political and religious beliefs” mainly from SMS donations. The Church offered the movement a parish to conduct its campaign, and Camilleri said the movement will publish what it spent and where it came from.

On Monday, Camilleri said he would not take questions before 5:30pm, but when asked if we could get in touch with him after that time, Camilleri said he would be visiting his notary later. Attempts to get him to suggest a suitable time proved futile. “The movement now is no longer,” Camilleri said.

Treasurer William Buckle told MaltaToday he was not at liberty to comment on whether the Maltese archdiocese had forwarded it €250,000 for its campaign. “We’re still compiling the list [of payments]… it is not ethical for me to divulge such information having been given this role.”

Papagiorcopulo has also told One News that the movement would be publicising its accounts without confirming or denying the €250,000 transfer the movement is believed to have received from the Curia.

Apart from the Church’s public relations officer bolstering the anti-divorce campaign team, several other Church figures lent their support to the movement. Dr Anna Vella, the president of the Church’s marriage preparation organisation Cana Movement; TV presenter Joyce Cassar from the CAM production house of the Missionary Society of St Paul; and Fr Joe Borg, the founder of Church media house Media Centre and formerly the Archbishop’s delegate for social communication.

People like Andre Camilleri and Arthur Galea Salomone also had close ties to the Church. Camilleri was formerly president of the forum for Catholic organisations, a representative on the Archbishop’s diocesan representative council, and also a member of the Archdiocese’s commission for the implementation of the Synod. Galea Salomone, like Camilleri before him, is a director of the board of APS Bank (Apostleship of Prayer Savings Bank), the archdiocese’s bank.

Additionally, the Church’s delegates teamed up with members of the Nationalist party and the government in their campaign. Anton Attard, the chairman of the Public Broadcasting Services and formerly the prime minister’s campaign manager in 2008, was consulted almost immediately in the campaign. Former Air Malta chairman and Misco pollster Lawrence Zammit revealed himself to have been part of the campaign when the result of the referendum was announced. And Claudio Grech, the chairman of the Malta IT Agency and formerly head of Austin Gatt’s secretariat, had been assisting Zwieg Bla Divorzju’s campaign from the very start. Even the deputy Cabinet secretary Frans Borg – brother to Joe – took two months’ vacation leave to assist in the campaign.