[We adopt this contribution from Karl Noswitz* with kind permission. Original can be found here].
Pax-Bank eG, headquartered in Cologne, Germany, is a cooperatively organized, Christian-sustainable social bank. The bank was founded as Pax Spar-und Darlehnskasse eGmbH as a self-help organization of priests for priests on October 18, 1917. Pax-Bank’s customers include church, non-profit, social institutions and associations as well as associations, corporations and institutions under public law and private individuals.
Pax Bank lures customers with an explicit advertising promise to stay away from the abortion industry. Indeed, Pax-Bank promises to distance itself from “producers of corresponding drugs as well as operators of medical facilities that perform abortions”.
To private customers, Pax Bank sells insurance exclusively from the comnpany R+V. One R+V district manager even has his own telephone extension at the Pax Bank headquarters in Cologne. In addition, Caritas, the welfare organization of the Catholic Church, has has concluded a major deal with R+V in 2019. Since then, company pensions for new Caritas employees nationwide have been run through R+V.
However, it seems that no one in the Catholic world has any idea that R+V actually supports the abortion industry. In the document “Ethical-Sustainable Investment Criteria“, R+V states that it invests the money of policyholders referred to R+V by Pax Bank with the operators of abortion clinics by providing real estate capital. One example of this collaboration is Gabie Raven’s new abortion clinic in Dortmund, Germany, the first time a Dutch abortion clinic has opened a branch in Germany. (Gabie Raven is the official representative for the Netherlands of the International Federation of Abortion Specialists(Fiapac) and is one of the key players in the international abortion movement). Gabie Raven’s abortion clinics in Rotterdam and Roermond in Holland alonealready kill 6,300 children a year. Signficantly, not a single curative treatment is carried out at her clinics. And R+V receives around 3,500 euros a month in rent from Gabie Raven. Since the business relationships with Pax Bank and Caritas bring R+V disproportionately more income, they definitely have the clout to get R+V to cancel its lease with Gabie Raven.
But will Pax Bank and Caritas do the right thing and do this? That is the million dollar question.
*Karl Noswitz is an investigative journalist and pro-life activist in Germany. Karl Noswitz has also been blogging about the abortion industry since 2022. Because of his pro-life work, Noswitz was sued several times, not least by Bishop Georg Bätzing, the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference.