'Mission-driven' Catholic credit unions give members a critical financial lifeline

(OSV News) -- At the height of COVID-19 pandemic, Catholic dioceses across America faced a struggle to keep employees on the payroll at shuttered offices and schools. With empty churches and declining donations, their best hope for help was the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP.

Established by the $2.2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act in March 2020 -- and implemented by the Small Business Administration with Treasury Department support -- the PPP provided funds for payroll costs, including benefits.

All that was necessary was to apply through a participating lender.

But that's when things turned difficult -- some big banks not only wouldn't help dioceses with a loan, they weren't even talking to them.

Robert Kloska -- administrator of Catholic Credit Unions of America and chief partnership officer of Notre Dame Federal Credit Union -- told OSV News one California diocese reported, "Our bank won't even return our phone calls -- they're totally ghosting us."

That's when Notre Dame FCU -- a Catholic credit union launched in 1941 at Indiana's University of Notre Dame, with 54,000-plus current members -- put almost $900 million in assets to work for the church. Ultimately, it coordinated $230 million in PPP loans -- including 17 dioceses, and 850 Catholic parishes and schools.

"We were one of the leading PPP lenders in the country," Kloska said, "because we did not prioritize by profitability -- we served our mission. And at a bank, if there are more profitable things to do, they can ignore the church. But we didn't."

In 1960, there were over 825 U.S. credit unions with a Catholic affiliation. There are now fewer than 100.

Credit unions -- not-for-profit financial institutions owned by their members -- are, Kloska noted, uniquely reflective of Catholic values.

"Credit unions, by structure, instantiate many aspects of Catholic social teaching," he explained. "The idea of people participating and being empowered in their own financial health -- by owning the institution they bank with -- shifts them from a position of being a customer at the whim of the company," said Kloska. "They become a stakeholder."

Brian McCue -- president and CEO of Unity Catholic Federal Credit Union, which was founded in 1942 and serves 9,000 members in the Diocese of Cleveland -- agrees.

"We're able to support our community more closely because we're in touch with them -- we know their needs, and we're more nimble in making decisions," emphasized McCue. Unity Catholic, with $94 million in assets, will make a loan to someone a bank might not consider, "because we know who they are and we know where they come from," he said.

Operating priorities, McCue stressed, are different.

"As credit unions, we're not beholden to stockholders to make a profit and make money -- we're beholden to our members to help them manage their lives," he added. "Just like you would be supported in your faith at the church," McCue suggested, "when you come to us, we support you with your finances."

Popes past and present -- including Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, St. John Paul II, St. Paul VI, St. John XXIII and Pope Pius XII -- have championed credit unions. St. Pius X -- as a parish priest -- even organized credit unions for his flock.

Canadian-born American priest Msgr. Pierre Hevey -- pastor of Sainte-Marie Parish in Manchester, New Hampshire -- is cited as founding in 1908 the first U.S. credit union, "La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie" (The People's Bank).

Intended to serve Msgr. Hevey's parishioners -- predominantly Franco-American mill workers -- it still operates in Manchester. The website proudly states, "It costs no more to belong to St. Mary's Bank now than it did in 1908. For just $5, anyone can become a member, by purchasing one share of capital stock."

When St. Ann's Arlington Federal Credit Union opened in 1949, said manager Mary Green, it assisted members with mortgages. But in 2024 -- with $3 million in assets and the average Arlington, Virginia, home listing at $809,000 -- its offerings have necessarily changed.

Located in the Diocese of Arlington -- a suburb just outside of Washington -- the bulk of St. Ann's business is now new and used auto and auto title loans, as well as unsecured (signature) loans up to $10,000.

"There are people sitting in the pews next to us at St. Ann Parish in Arlington who don't know how they're going to put food on their table," observed Green. "You don't know who those people are -- because they don't wear a sign around their neck that says that. But Arlington is a very expensive place to live, and there are people in great need."

About a dozen large accounts -- on a percentage basis -- make up the bulk of deposits. Their holders, Green said, keep their money with St. Ann's because they believe in its ministry.

"People of all income levels will take out loans from us," she shared. "But our ministry is making unsecured loans to people to keep them away from predatory lenders, and to keep them out of credit card debt."

In Virginia -- which has some of the weakest consumer protections in America -- payday and title lenders can charge annual percentage rates topping 300%.

"I consider it a victory," Green declared, "when I have somebody who's taken out a loan from us come back to me before they make a financial mistake."

Green also offers credit counseling. Sessions, she said, always start the same way.

"I say three things: It's all confidential; there's no judgment here; and you didn't get into this situation overnight, and you're not going to get out of it overnight. But let's try to look at your situation, and come up with solutions," she explained.

"And I can't tell you how many times, that's when somebody starts crying," Green told OSV News. "What they usually say is, 'I've never known that I could come to a place like this, and somebody would do this.'"

Holy Rosary Credit Union in Kansas City, Missouri -- established in 1943 by Italian immigrants, all parishioners of the city's Holy Rosary Parish -- is also no stranger to the payday loan industry.

"When I first came to Holy Rosary, that was my primary objective: I was going to fight payday lending," said president Carole Wight, who industriously crafted a program to combat it.

"But I realized, 'Carole, that's not enough. They have to have cars to drive to work.' And then I realized, 'Carole, that's not enough. They have to have decent homes to live in,'" Wight recalled. "And then I thought, 'Carole, that's not enough. They need businesses, because immigrants typically gain wealth by starting businesses.'"

And so it goes for Wight, who has, in 16 years, grown Holy Rosary's assets from $8.9 million to $43 million. Two recent robberies -- no one was injured in the incidents -- have been the only such incidents in her era.

The Italian immigrant founders of Holy Rosary "banded together in this credit union for survival," explained Wight. "They literally could not borrow a dime anywhere to get a mattress to lay their head on."

Immigrants faced extreme discrimination, Wight noted.

"The chairman of the board -- when I came -- told the story of (how) as an 8-year-old boy he was walking to see his grandmother, who worked in the garment industry as a seamstress," said Wight. Along the way, he was stopped by the police. "He'd gone under the bridge into the city -- he'd left the neighborhood," explained Wight. Placed in a squad car and taken to the station, he was later brought back to where he was picked up, but with a warning: "'Don't you ever leave your neighborhood again.' So that was the type of prejudice they had to face."

Holy Rosary still overwhelmingly serves people in poverty -- 97% of its members are financially stressed.

Wight proudly tells the story of Anna, a homeless mother with three boys. The family was living in their car when referred to Holy Rosary by a local social services provider.

"Anna did everything that we asked her to do," shared Wight. "And we closed on her house with a credit score of 740 just a year after our first meeting."

"We meet needs that would otherwise be unmet," Wight emphasized. "We really are truly mission-driven. We seek after the people that others don't want to serve."