ACP Statement on Allianz
21 August 2025
Association of Catholic Priests
Now that an impressive, possibly comprehensive, list of reputable and credible agencies is lining up to use the difficult word ‘genocide’ to describe what’s happening in Gaza, a new clarity has exposed the frightening possibility of an absolutely catastrophic ending to a tragedy that, despite Israel attempting to block media coverage, the truth is to be seen in the images of dying children on the television screens of the world.
Like an infection, the Gaza reality is now seeping outside itself and engaging the concerns – social, economic, moral – of those caught in the slipstream of that calamity. Like Allianz, the financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany, the world’s largest insurance company and the largest financial services company in Europe.
Questions are now being asked of Allianz, arising out of its listing in a report published in June this year on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN of companies and corporations, it is alleged, help to sustain and pay for Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.
Little wonder that the GAA in whose commercial concerns Allianz has been and continues to be deeply embedded is already under the microscope of public examination. Already a petition for GAA members is being published on Change.org and has created a huge focus on the Allianz-GAA relationship and a demand that it be ended.
A similar demand is likely to emerge when the long and close commercial relationship of Allianz and the Catholic Church in Ireland becomes clear. For decades, Allianz has been the trusted friend of the Catholic Church – even to the extent of enjoying representation on the Allianz Board – with Catholic Church properties in Ireland including places of worship, schools, cars, etc almost all being insured by Allianz as a matter of course.
Coincidentally this Sunday, Archbishop Eamon Martin, the accepted leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, together with his fellow bishops are leading a ‘Day of Prayer and Reflection for Gaza’ in the parishes and dioceses of Ireland and Archbishop Martin has issued a pastoral letter in which he calls for ‘a renewed commitment by the international community for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East’.
In the light of that ‘Reflection’ and because the present sense of outrage in the Irish Catholic Church at what’s happening in Gaza will be increased exponentially by the revelation of the Irish Catholic Church’s connection with Allianz and Allianz’s connection with the state of Israel, we ask that the response of the Irish Catholic Church should be immediate and far-reaching in cutting our links with Allianz.
Nothing less is acceptable as Irish Catholics will now be conscious of the Allianz connection – albeit by extension – and of our connection with the plight of the children we see on our television screens.
The ACP also encourages all Catholic religious Congregations and dioceses to exercise high levels of due diligence in carefully scrutinizing their investment portfolios to determine if any part of their investments is helping to sustain the appalling human rights abuse being inflicted on the Palestinian people.
I will definitely be faithful to Allianz. The priests should remain neutral re times of war and pray for peace generally. How can priests pray for peace when they have taken sides thus becoming compromised. Jesus! Please convert the Irish clergy, they have lost the Faith. God have mercy on Ireland. Siobhan McNamee
For 50 years, congregations of Catholic Sisters have refused to invest in corporations whose business goes against Catholic social teaching. (Detailed article in NCR September 7/2023.)
I’ve rarely taken part in demonstrations, doubting their effectiveness. But I did take part in a small demonstration outside the HQ of Itochu and it had remarkable success. Itochu disinvested in Israel: “One of Japan’s biggest trading firms, Itochu, has decided to end its partnership with a major Israeli defense company due to the war in Gaza…. The decision was made following a January ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — the top court of the United Nations — and guidance given by Japan’s Foreign Ministry to observe the court’s findings in “good faith,” a spokesperson for Itochu told CNN on Tuesday. Itochu, which reported revenues of $104 billion in 2023, has faced small-scale, student-led protests in Tokyo against its partnership with Elbit since January. Its Family Mart chain has also been the target of calls for boycotts in Muslim-majority Malaysia over the agreement.” (CNN 6 Feb 2024)
Thank God for students, who have been persecuted in the USA for their keen consciences and sense of humanity.
This is an excellent statement from the ACP.
Thank you.
We should all share the statement as widely as we can on FB, for example, which I have already done.