Marion M. Ganey

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.

As assistant pastor at Holy Redeemer Cathedral in Belize City, he organized youth clubs and Golden Gloves boxing tournaments.

[1] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He convinced the Jesuit superior to send Ganey to the Pacific islands of Fiji and Samoa, where he spent the rest of his life.

Recounting this occasion, as well as his death seven years later, The Christian Herald wrote: "The tall, lanky figure of Fr.

Ganey was everywhere, advising, encouraging, giving of his talents to engineer the success of this economic effort that affected the root people.

In 1846 when crop failure and famine struck Germany he organised a mill and bakery cooperative and a "people's bank" that provided credit to farmers.

The U.S. credit union movement became increasingly popular in the 1920s economy when Edward Filene, a wealthy Bostonian, hired Roy Bergengren to promote the cause in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to the traditional information and enforcement advantages resulting from the fact that members shared the same workplace, the employer-based bond permitted credit unions to use future paychecks as collateral.

[11] In 1954 the World Extension Department was created to give international direct assistance to credit unions, often in collaboration with government programs.