Marion M. Ganey

right Fr. Marion M. Ganey, S.J., (1904–1984) was an American Catholic priest, member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and missionary to British Honduras, Central America, from 1937 to 1953, where he was instigator of the credit union and cooperatives movement. He became increasingly prominent in this movement, being invited to the Fiji Islands in 1953 and laboring to establish the movement there and throughout the South Pacific until his death in Fiji in 1984.

Early life left Marion M. Ganey was born July 21, 1904, and entered the Society of Jesus on August 7, 1922. He studied for the priesthood at St. Louis University divinity school in St. Marys, Kansas, and was ordained in 1935. After a year of spiritual studies he arrived in British Honduras (Belize) in 1937. As assistant pastor at Holy Redeemer Cathedral in Belize City, he organized youth clubs and Golden Gloves boxing tournaments. Direct contact with the poor, along with the social encyclicals of Popes Pius XI and Leo XIII, launched Ganey on his career of founding credit unions and cooperatives. In his time at Holy Redeemer Cathedral, Ganey would fill the hall with "a thousand young men." To found the credit union at Holy Redeemer, Ganey relied on a fellow Jesuit Fr. Henry Sutti, who grew up at Fr. Flanagan's Boys Town in Nebraska. Bishop Dorick M. Wright, in his preface to the history of the Catholic church in Belize, calls "the credit union and cooperative movements stalwart pillars in the country's economic development."

Punta Gorda In 1942 Ganey became pastor in Punta Gorda in the south of Belize. There he established the St. Peter Claver Credit Union in 1943. He then traveled from one village to another throughout the country preaching the Church's social doctrine and its relation to the establishment of credit unions and cooperatives. He conferred with authorities in the U.S. and Nova Scotia on methods to improve cooperatives in Central America. He also taught the people agricultural practices that would produce a better yield on their plantations and he greatly enlarged the market for their produce. For that he enlisted two alumni of St. John's College: "Buster" Hunter used his two mail boats to carry produce from Punta Gorda to Belize City, where Edgar Gegg would sell it. From this beginning the cooperative began. Meanwhile, the Pallotine Sisters in Punta Gorda were teaching the girls weaving, and how to cook and preserve produce: "The domestic detail of the Cooperative is in the hands of the Sisters." What Ganey had begun soon inspired community-conscious leaders of all denominations throughout Belize to form credit unions. Jesuit Fr. Joseph Wade described the necessary steps in forming a co-op: study club, credit union, co-op. As he wrote, "a very timid-faced little co-op is moving shyly about my village" in Orange Walk.

Growing movement Bishop William A. Rice had encouraged Ganey in his efforts. His successor, Bishop David Francis Hickey, showed strong support also. Eight Jesuits were sent to the World Institute of Cooperatives in St. Louis to learn this aspect of missiology and Fr. William Moore, S.J., was assigned to full-time work in the cooperative movement. Moore became the first president of the Belize Credit Union League, while the Belizean government opened a special department of cooperatives and sent civil servants abroad for further study of the movement. Credit unions and cooperatives remain important elements in the national economy of Belize. In the latter part of the 1950s, two foreign-owned companies were purchasing lobster tails from Belizean fishermen at 40 cents a pound and whole lobsters at 16 cents a pound, then exporting them to the United States where they sold them for $2.40 per pound. In the early 1960s, some local fishermen established their own fish processing plant and marketing operation. The new operation, although inefficient, immediately realized significant savings, enabling the fishermen to double their income.

Fiji and South Pacific islands Ganey's departure from Belize was at the instigation of Sir Ronald Garvey KCMG, who had served in the Fiji Islands before coming to Belize and felt that Ganey could do wonders for Fiji with cooperatives and credit unions. He convinced the Jesuit superior to send Ganey to the Pacific islands of Fiji and Samoa, where he spent the rest of his life. Ganey established the first credit union in Fiji in January 1954 and by July of the same year established the Credit Union Ordinance which later became the Fiji Credit Union Act, impacting also Tonga and Samoa where Ganey extended his work. He organised insurance underwriting for the Pacific credit unions through CUNA Mutual Group and developed the Bergengren Credit Union Training Centre in 1964, at the same time contributing to the formation of the South Pacific Association of Credit Union Leagues. Fiji, at its height, had a total of 39 credit unions with some 8,600 members. In 1961, Fr. Marion Ganey was invited to New Zealand to lead a seminar on the importance of a united credit union movement. Way before mobile banking became popular there was a mobile credit union, operating out the back of a Land Rover. The visit by Ganey and his executives was usually followed by feasting and celebrations. Ganey died in Fiji in 1984 and was gladly accorded his wish of being buried at the parish there. In 1954 the World Extension Department was created to give international direct assistance to credit unions, often in collaboration with government programs. A World Council of Credit Unions was created in 1971 and it now represents 97 national credit union movements with more than 172 million credit union members.