I guess that the Roman Catholic Church may be the largest international nonprofit in the world which is why I am writing this blog tonight.  The Roman Catholic Church has 1.1 million members, although I do wonder how they are counted!  Its income is obvious huge, and it must be impossible to know its total income worldwide.  It has congregations everywhere from St Peter’s Rome to congregations of two or three without priestly ministry in a thousand corners of the world.  It has enormous influence, and I believe that it is usually a force for good

Today the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in in Washington DC.  Pope Benedict, due to an accident of Italian history, is a head of state, the Vatican, as well as a religious leader, and he has been received by President George W. Bush as a Head of State at the White House.  Today is also the Pope’s birthday.  He is 81.  Happy Birthday Holy Father they sang.  He’s pretty good for his age.  Gives hope to elderly heads of state everywhere but don’t tell President Mugabe.

At the same time the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, is making a secret visit to America.  Or at least you would think it’s secret if you read the newspapers in the UK.  He’s not getting the same kind of reception as the Pope.  But then he’s not a head of state (that’s Queen Elizabeth).  And he’s not 81.  It’s not even his birthday.

Some UK newspapers (well nearly all of them actually) are making mischief because Gordon Brown has multiple problems: The economy (stupid), tax, Iraq, Zimbabwe, upcoming elections, charisma (actually lack of it), and foolishly he’s not the former Prime Minister Tony Blair who was, it is now reported, charismatic and even (since recently) Roman Catholic!!  At the weekend it was reported on the BBC that there is a even a call TB’s return as prime Minister - but don’t hold your breath.

Gordon Brown’s visit has attracted roars of silence from the US media who are interested in the Pope.  And why not?  The Pope’s a colurful figure dressed in white.  And he has the confidence and respect of a vast number of people.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a very significant point in favour which changes everything.  He is a democratically elected leader.

The Pope, whose first pronouncement in the USA sadly had to be an apology for the immoral and illegal behaviour of some of his priests, isn’t democratically elected.  If she were she might be Pope Tracey, for it’s probable that a majority of committed Roman Catholics are women.

And democracy matters, not least to nonprofit organizations.  Philanthropy only functions as it should if the laws that regulate it are just and fair to all.  I’m for democracy.  And religious leaders who aren’t democratically elected by a free vote are fair game if they stray into the political arena.  It’s not just the Pope, it’s the Dali Lama, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishops in the UK House of Lords……

Religous leaders come and go according to the rules of their religion, political leaders should be democratically elected.  That is their authority.  Gordon Brown has that authority, and he is in the USA to do a job at the UN, at the White House, in Wall Street.  He’s doing this job for the people of the UK who believe in the democratic process.  Wish him success.

Before the end of this week there will be announcements of further vast losses from US banks including Citigroup, J.P.Morgan and Merrill Lynch.  We don’t know how big they will be and we don’t know what will happen to the world’s economic machinery as a result.  It’s clear from the last few weeks that almost anything is possible.  Philanthropy will not be spared, of course.  Many of the banks and bankers that made decisions to lend without much hope of repayment are amongst the biggest donors.  It’s not that the dangers were unknown, it was a simple desire to make more and more money, and charities have benefitted, and now the people they serve will suffer.

This summary of the story so far sounded about right when I read it a couple of weeks ago: “It was of course all the more drastic in the USA because in fact a lagging expansion of demand has been beefed up by means of an enormous expansion of consumer credit.  (Readers who remember the late 1980s may find themselves on familiar territory).  Banks, already hurt by the speculative real-estate boom which, with the usual help of self-deluding optimists and mushrooming financial crookery, loaded with bad debts, refused new housing loans or to refinance existing ones.  A thousand properties a day were being foreclosed.” 

 In fact this isn’t a paragraph from a recent Financial Times but part of Eric Hobsbawm’s description of the Crash of 1929 (The Age of Extremes, Abacus, p100, 1992).  Hobsbawm comments “it provides a vivid illustration of society’s need for historians, who are the professional remembrancers of what their fellow-citizens forget.”  As someone too old to have been taught any twentieth century history at school, I can recommend this book as a “brilliant synthesis of familiar and forgotten facts and ideas” (Ben Pimlott) and a wonderful read for those like me ignorant of the history and economics of that time.

Another example of our need for historians is the tragedy of Iraq.  Even if the invasion were justified, and I don’t think it was, (although I admit I wasn’t so sure when I marched in London with a million others,) only the war was planned, not the peace.  I wish that I could say that philanthropy could have shown the way but there were no voices loud enough to be heard above the thunder of the helicopters.  However, I knew that I had read something about the similar and far worse situation when Germany surrendered in 1945.  Winston Churchill the British Prime Minister wrote, “the surrender of the German people should be completed by the agencies which have authority over them.  We will never be able to rule Germany apart from the Germans.” (Prime Minister’s Personal Minute, M.474/5, 14 May 1954, Churchill papers, 20/209.)

Has anyone written a history of international philanthropy, as readable and insightful as Hobsbawn and as immediate as Churchill?  I know that it’s a tall order, but in these difficult times, philanthropists and fundraisers need perspective and encouragement too. Remembrancers, please step forward