Reflections of bishops after our week of study on Social Credit

Bishop Etienne Ung’Eyowun with our Directress, Therese Tardif, receives a banner of St. Michael.

Twice a year, we invite bishops, mostly from Africa, to our week of study on Social Credit at our headquarters in Rougemont, Canada. The ten African bishops who took part in our seminar last March left us thrilled and determined to further our cause in their dioceses. Here are the comments of a few of them:

Bishop Etienne Ung’Eyowun of the diocese of Bondo in the Democratic Republic of Congo:

Our professor Alain Pilote is a real pilot who brought us to very high and far places. It was a great pleasure to follow him. And in a particular way I would like to underline the point that struck me: it was the mastery of the Social Doctrine of the Church by a lay person... Everything was presented in a skillful manner, with well-chosen texts that are arranged and orderly, in such a way that it is easy to understand.

There are two elements that I have learned here. Firstly, the great question of world indebtedness, with its repercussions on our States of Africa: we speak many times about our governments but now I am starting to understand that the big problem is the bankers. Our States have been taken by the throat; perhaps they do not realize much but now is the moment to enlighten them. This is why the proposition to inform the political actors is very important; they should take into consideration that the solution is here. Mr. Pilote reminded us that each society, each State, should create its money without interest! If, at the national level, we take this confidence and liberate the people, I believe that we will have taken a big step.

The second point that you showed us is that this is a battle against evil. The system is vicious from the beginning. This was fully demonstrated during the week of study. We should put all of our intelligence and strength towards this the task of eradicating it but you added another element, the spiritual dimension. It is a battle against evil, against the devil. Your emblem that we will bring home with us shows this victory of St. Michael over the devil… Each day in my personal “litany” that I have composed, I say: “St. Michael, protect my diocese; St. Gabriel, protect my diocese; St. Raphael, protect my diocese.” I put my diocese under the protection of the archangels, knowing that the battle that I fight is a very difficult one and I believe that these protectors that the Church gives us are from the Lord. I am also implicated in this spirituality and it is with joy that I receive this gift, (the banner of St. Michael) because this enters also into our spirituality.

The first problem of the population of my diocese is hunger; it is the problem of food: the people are not able to satisfy their hunger. And when I arrived here and heard this repeated many times, it touched and struck me: the first need is nourishment, to give food to the population. What a call for me! And the theme of the week of study was: the daily bread distributed to all! Thank you very much for reminding us of this crucial question of bread for everyone. For me, this is not an imaginary problem; it is a real need of the population. Our professor quoted St. Thomas Aquinas who said that there must be a minimum of well-being in order to practice virtue; the first point is, that the people eat.

I will return home with these new ideas that should send us on the road and push us to action, we cannot simply stay with the joy of this knowledge but we must move forward to action… We must influence those who make decisions… it is in this sense that we must engage ourselves. We must not simply let the economic and political operators direct us without worries — this reminds me of the intervention by Cardinal Tumi of Cameroon during the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec in 2008 that Mr. Pilote showed us during the week of study: we must cause them to have an uneasy conscience! We must reach people in high places, not leave them in peace. You know about our Episcopal Conference, I believe that we will not allow these things to pass and we will continue the battle because, as much as possible, tomorrow must be better; in the sense of your magazine Vers Demain (Towards Tomorrow), tomorrow will be better. We believe it and I thank you.

Most Rev. Gaston Ruvezi, bishop of the diocese of Sakania Kipushi of the Democratic Republic of Congo:

I came here because I was curious and in revolt against the Americans and the Canadians. Why? Because it is the big businesses that I see in my country, in my diocese, that exploit the minerals that we have and after they leave the population in the blackest misery. In coming here, I discovered that the Canadians and Americans have the same enemy as we do.

We have singled out the problem here; it is the education of the people. Thank you for creating this spirit of family between the laity, priests and bishops that forms the Church family that we all wish for. I give myself and my collaborators the duty to propagate the message of social credit, using the education of the people through the poor means that we have If we do not do it, if I do not do it, I will also be a financial assassin. I thank you.

Most Rev. Joseph Befe Ateba, Bishop of the diocese of Kribi in Cameroon:

I was also strongly impressed by your explanation of the experiences of apostolate that we have listened to: what benevolence, people who go to knock on doors and pray with the people, who speak of the faith with them; this reminded me of another witness: there was a famous American lawyer (Samuel Pisar) who is the sole survivor of his family — he was a Polish Jew, all of his parents were massacred — but he decided to live. He called his book “Of Blood and Hope.” I think that I have received this blood of hope, here.

I was struck also by the open and courageous denunciation of Freemasonry and the Illuminati. I just looked up on Google (the internet) all that concerns the llluminati and it gave me cold chills. As you say, it is really a Satanic world that has the final goal of eliminating the Church and installing a New World Order.

In regards to the seminar itself, I appreciated many things. What I have learned here, with much enjoyment, is the origin of money and the motivations behind it, because the monetary and banking system could seem to the world as a natural thing. I appreciated the complimentary information that I received, the revelations on the monetary and banking system, and that it is possible to do otherwise, that money is not consubstantial to our States. We can do otherwise than the system that we now have and we had a demonstration yesterday (by Mr. de Siebenthal) on the creation of local money, which really impassioned us.

I also appreciated the keen knowledge of the Social Doctrine of the Church that motivated my participation from the beginning. We have, in the ecclesiastical province that I come from, stirred up many ideas on what we call today the “social Gospel” or “social ecclesiology.” The new evangelization in Africa calls us, especially in the social fields. There are plenty of problems to be addressed: environmental misery, questions of injustice, the lack of daily bread, etc., every day there is a problem in Africa and we are left behind. Africa is a continent that is clinically dead, as we said; the diagnostics do not give us a chance: we are killed by AIDS, indebtedness, malaria, it is a dead country. In the production of the goods of the world, in 2008, Africa contributed 0.001 percent in the world patrimony, despite the fact that we have the riches that are underground that we do not consider. But the banking system has classed us; it is the economic systems that evaluates us and give us a label, even if all that the world today is made of — metals and minerals that we use — come from us.

I also learned much about the mechanisms of power in the world and what most pleased me, is the proposition of another possibility. It presents a new social order which would be free of the tutelage of the great monetary and banking powers, which have no other criterion of action other than that of their own interests. It is not man that preoccupies them, not at all. In this they differ fundamentally with the Social Doctrine of the Church.

What struck me also is the proposition to hand over monetary and financial power to its legitimate beneficiaries: to society, the people, to humanity; this is what I learned about from what you call economic democracy, meaning the end of the monopoly of money by those who unjustly appropriate it.

Throughout the presentations, I never stopped wondering how it would be possible to bring this teaching to Africa. For me the concern lies in the awareness of the people: how to get this information to the little people who are the immediate victims of this whole system.

Faced with these systems, these powers, even the most elaborate thought is not sufficient to attack the system because it is so seriously implemented. It has all the means — military and financial resources, systemic, political and diplomatic assets... When you look at this, you say: “What can the small Social Credit can do in the face of all of this?”

We have the examples from the Bible. It is in this sense that David found himself in front of Goliath. When you read the story of David, you see that Goliath recalled his victories and said to David: “Who are you? I can crush you!” David said, “I come to you in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of Hosts)!” He did not advance until David came towards him in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth. And in the end it was David who had the upper hand. So this could be a repetition of the story of David and Goliath.

Bishop Bernard Kassanda, of the diocese of Mbuji-Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo :

Of all the texts in the manual of the 10 Lessons, there are many that edified me but especially the passage on pages 177-178: “What would be infinitely better, would be to correct the problem at the source, to attack the causes of poverty and to re-establish each human being in his rights and his dignity of a person created in the image of God, having a right to the necessities of life.”

And the text continues with a quote from Pope Paul VI (taken from his encyclical Populorum Progressio: “More than anything else, he who is animated with true charity is ingenious to discover the cause of poverty and to find way to fight it, and to resolutely overcome it.” And the author of the book continues: “What we need are apostles to educate the population on the Social Doctrine of the Church and concrete solutions to apply it, such as the financial proposals of Social Credit.”

For me, this is the essential element. To go towards a concrete application, we must educate the population. At home, I give myself the duty to have the lessons translated into Tshiluba, the language spoken in my diocese. And I would like to do something as well for the world, to share the ideas that hide the unheard of riches of our Church, these riches that are synthesized here by Douglas and were taken up in the spirit of the Church by Louis Even. You, Pilgrims of St. Michael, you have work to do. With Mary on one side and St. Michael on the other, why should you be afraid?

Most Rev. Samuel Kleda, archbishop of Douala in Cameroon:

Thank you for the occasion that you have given me to know you and to live your conviction concerning Social Credit, another way to organize the economy that gives the priority to the human person. Thank you for your hospitality and amiable fraternity. Now, the expression “Pilgrims of St. Michael” is not only an expression for us, it is the will of a group of men and women to trace a new way in the management of the world economy.

What struck me, in general, is the vision of things. After a week of study on social credit, I admire today the intelligence of Douglas, the audacity and courage he had to trace this new route, a different route that is admitted to and followed by the rest of the world. He proposed another route that permits man to be liberated and to be responsible for what he produces. In this way, man is liberated of an economic system that makes him a slave, a system that above all has a goal of egoistic profit. We must dare to trace a road against all opposition; you see now, what is my interpretation of the genius of this man. And for this, we must have a good dose of prophetic courage. When we study the prophets of Israel, we realize that each had a message to transmit and this message answered a precise problem. In his time, Douglas saw a problem but he was the only one who said: “No, there is another way to see the problem and to organize the economy in the world.”

The merit of Louis Even was great, to assimilate the economic theory of Douglas, and I liked this phrase that Douglas said on the subject of the work of Louis Even: “After my death, if you wish to have an explanation about Social Credit, you must refer to Louis Even; it is he who understood the best.” This means that Louis Even understood Social Credit and had undertaken to apply it because he gathered around him a whole community, the group of people of whom you are a part.

I really appreciate what you teach because through Social Credit, you wish to resolve the problem of misery and poverty while destroying the evil at its roots. What causes me to rejoice is that you are not only at the service of an Africa that is under constant infusion; but you intervene all over the world. Misery and poverty does not only concern one country or continent; all these grave problems concern the entire world. When we discover that the system in which we live was invented by a man and that it can be changed if men wish, it becomes very revolting. How is it that the banks become the owners, the masters of what we produce! Here is the problem, here is the revolt.