A missionary work volunteer and benefactor who visited Guatemala multiple times had offered money to a local woman in return for sexual favours, a court heard this morning.

67-year-old Luigi Duca appeared before magistrate Joseph Mifsud facing charges of slander against a priest who helps the poor in the villages of Guatemala. It was this same priest, Fr Anton Grech who was called to testify in the case.

Fr Grech, who has been carrying out missionary work in civil-war stricken Guatemala for the past 20 years, said that he had first met with Wigi Duca in 2007 when a group of volunteers flew all the way to the country through a Mission Fund project. At the time, the group of volunteers was led by Fr Marcellino Micallef.

He recalled how the accused did not involve or contribute much to the group and most of the time, he preferred staying on his own. Duca went to Guatemala some time later, during Christmas time and on one occasion, Fr Grech took the volunteer to a small village where a housing project for the poor was ongoing. After showing him the work being done and how a simple room is built to provide basic shelter for the homeless with some Lm500, Duca approached the priest and told him he wanted to do a housing project.   

At first, the priest was reluctant to give him the green light, but told he would help if he wanted to get involved. The prosecution asked why he was reluctant to let him do a project and Fr Grech told the court a personal experience and how he had learnt to be very careful.

“Years ago, when I was relatively new to the country, a woman had approached me begging for financial help. After some fund raising, the woman was provided with the necessary money. I later got to know that the money we gave her was used to hire a hitman so that she could avenge her husband. So when Duca came along with such proposal, I told him to be very careful and explained to him that financial projects need to go through a committee.”

As it was explained, this committee was made up a lawyer and a treasurer among others.

Without Fr Grech’s knowledge, Wigi Duca started to collect money for the mission in Guatemala while in Malta. Fr Grech said that he had no knowledge of how much was actually collected, however confirmed that funds did pass on to his mission. Some months later, Duca reappeared in Guatemala and for the first time, Duca met with the committee. The priest showed him what was going on with the money collected and explained that a builder was hired to carry the projects. It took some three to four months to build each house and some 19 houses were set up.

“Luigi Duca did a lot of good. But I always warn against the colonial idea to go to a poor country and just use a lot of money to set up houses,” the priest told magistrate Mifsud.

Time passed and in August 2015, while the priest was in Malta, Mission Fund told him that Duca wanted to speak to him. Between 2009 and 2015, Duca kept on sending some money, which according to the priest meant that he trusted him.

“We sat down together to speak and I warned him that his good deeds might be tarnished by his immoral actions.” The prosecution asked what he meant by this and to elaborate further.

The priest said that on occasions, Duca used to down six bottles of beer before a meeting and had on one occasion delivered boxes of wine and whiskey as part of a container which was normally used for charity supplies to Guatemala.

“I also got to know that one time,Duca approached a woman with 200 dollars asking for sexual favours. She refused and he then got out another 200 dollars. She refused again.”

Fr Grech then mentioned how the accused had published a book title “Bicca minn Hajti fil-Gwatemala’ presumably about his missionary experience. In it he mentioned Fr Grech and said he knew him well, where he came from and all of his life story. Fr Grech said that all of this was done without his consent.

Duca managed to raise a lot of money through the book even though Fr Grech only got to know about the book years later when a Maltese volunteer got him one from Malta. “He used my image and the missionary work in his book, without consulting me first,” he added. Once again, despite not knowing how much money exactly was collected, some did make it to Guatemala. Duca wanted the money to go to ‘his’ housing project so that the families can now be supplied with furniture. The priest had suggested against it as there were a lot of other poor people who needed urgent help and the money could help them relieve of their suffering.

The accused had also given Fr Grech a donation for a school which was opened by the priest. The money was spent on scholarships and salaries of the teachers. Duca never complained about this project.

Fr Grech mentioned a particular case which revolves around a chicken farm which was set up by funds collected by a group of volunteers in Xaghra. Luigi Duca, upon seeing this project, got inspired and wanted to set up a chicken farm under his name at the same village where the housing project took off. Fr Grech tried to arrange with the parish priest in this village to have the farm set up but did not manage. Instead, the money was used to get more chickens for the farm. The priest presented all receipts related to this particular case before the courts.

What led the priest to file a case of slander was when on his last trip to Guatemala, Duca had printed sheets saying that the Maltese priest was stealing money from him and that the funds collected were not being used properly. The letter was delivered to the locals on Christmas Eve.

“I know Duca did a lot of good and I forgave him of everything. But he had now exceeded the limit.”

 Inspector Anne Marie Xuereb led the prosecution. Lawyer Kathleen Grima appeared parte civile. Marion Camilleri defended the accused.

The case continues.