In the first reading of today’s Liturgy of Word, the minor prophet Amos indicts the kings, priests, leaders and the wealthy of the northern kingdom, Israel, and challenges their hypocrisy and injustice. Amos, who was a sheepherder and lived in the southern kingdom of Judea, received his call to be a prophet, in Israel, during the reign of kind Jeroboam II (786-746BC). It was time of great prosperity but at the expense of the people and especially the poor. Today’s reading from Amos is a catalogue of social sins committed against the people and poor.

Over the past week, a number of articles have appeared in the local newspapers, informing us concerning the machinations of big corporations. The European Union ordered Ireland to collect $14.5 billion in back taxes from Apple which Ireland granted Apple to relocate to Ireland. Both the governments of Ireland and the United States are against this because they fear if tax breaks are not given to such big companies who employ hundreds and thousands of workers, such companies will go elsewhere. Another article reported that the SEC fined Wells Fargo Bank, one of the biggest banks in the U.S. with 40 million depositors, $185 million. It was discovered that 5,300 employees of the bank were engaged in the sham deals, secretly signing up customers for 2 million accounts that they did not authorize, did not know they had and did not understand. Last Friday, Wells Fargo took out a full page ad in a number of newspapers entitled: To Wells Fargo customers: Our commitment to you, with a subtitle: We want to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. In the ad the bank refers to “allegations” of wrong doings but do not admit guilt.

Today, in New York City, Maurice R. Greenberg, former CEO of American International Group, goes on trial charged with various malpractices. AIC was perhaps the biggest insurer in the country. It went out of business and hundreds if not thousands of employees lost their jobs. It was a contributor to the economic crisis 2008. Because Mr. Greenberg can hire the top lawyers, the trial has been delayed for 11 years because of seven appeals. In 2009 AIC paid $16.5 to settle failure to supervise charges brought by the SEC. In 2013, the company paid $115 million to settle a suit over the accounting, brought by former AIC shareholders.

-Fr. Bill Mulligan