The battle of Michael

A better world

The first issue of the “Vers Demain” Journal, founded by Louis Even and Gilberte Cote, was published in Canada in September, 1939 (its English-language version, now called MICHAEL, was first published in 1953). So the “White Berets” have been travelling all over Canada and the world for the last 72 years, to bring the message of the “Vers Demain” and MICHAEL Journals to the population.

But what precisely is the message promoted by this journal? Why has this periodical been founded? What were the intentions and the objectives of its founders? This message, this objective, is still the same now as it was in 1939: to promote the development of a better world, a more Christian society, through the diffusion and the implementation of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church in every area of society. The pursuit of a better world: it is for this reason that the founders called it “Vers Demain” (Towards Tomorrow); they wanted to build a future that is better than today.

Louis Even was himself a great Catholic and he was convinced that a better world could be built only upon the eternal principles of the Gospel and upon the teachings of His Church — the Roman Catholic Church — whose visible head on earth is the Sovereign Pontiff, who is presently Benedict XVI.

Moreover, the objectives of the MICHAEL and “Vers Demain” Journals are clearly set out in every issue, just below the logo. On the left, you will read this inscription: “A Journal of Catholic Patriots, for the Kingship of Christ and Mary, in the souls, families and countries.” On the right: “For a Social Credit Economy, in accordance with the teachings of the Church, through the vigilant action of heads of families and not through political parties”. This means, among other things, that the Social Credit philosophy that is referred to has nothing to do with political parties, not even so-called “Social Credit parties” but it is an economic reform that can be applied by any political party in power.

MICHAEL then is a journal of Catholic patriots that also deals with economic reform, with Social Credit. Why? “What does this have to do with religion?” some might ask. The Social Credit system is nothing but a method, a way to apply the Church’s social doctrine, which is an integral part of the teaching of the Church. So in this, the MICHAEL Journal does not leave its first objective, which is “to promote the development of a more Christian society through the diffusion of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.”

If the Church intervenes in social matters and has developed a set of principles that came to be called the “social doctrine of the Church”, it is essentially because, as Pope Benedict XV said, “it is on the economic field that the salvation of souls is at stake.” His immediate successor, Pope Pius XI, also wrote:

“It may be said with all truth that nowadays the conditions of social and economic life are such that vast multitudes of men can only with great difficulty pay attention to that one thing necessary, namely their eternal salvation.” (Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931.) Throughout the centuries, all the Popes have spoken in a similar fashion.

Money is the license to live

The fact that countless souls are lost because of the present economic conditions is easy to understand: man needs a minimum of material goods to live his short pilgrimage on earth. God created man with an immortal soul but He also created him with material needs for food, clothing and shelter. But in order to get food, clothing and shelter, man must have money to purchase them; otherwise, goods will rot on the shelves and the pauper will starve to death.

In other words, money is the license to live for the individual: having no money means certain death in short term. Those who hold the power to create money — the Bankers — therefore literally control our lives, as Pope Pius XI rightly put it in his Encyclical letter Quadragesimo Anno, in 1931:

“This power becomes particularly irresistible when exercised by those who, because they hold and control money, are able also to govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the lifeblood to the entire economic body and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of production, so that no one dare breathe against their will.” A little further, the Pope added that “the State has become a slave, bound over to the service of human passion and greed,” to the service of the money powers.

This control of money by private interests is the greatest swindle of all times and it has brought about an incalculable number of disastrous consequences: economic depressions, wars, etc. One will never be able to figure out how much harm the present crooked financial system and the chronic money shortage has done to souls. Here are only a few examples, which could be multiplied ad nauseam:

On the world scale, over one billion seven hundred million people have to search through the garbage in order to find something to eat and stay alive. Over 100 million children on the globe are homeless and live in the streets, abandoned by their parents who can no longer support them. Every day on earth, over 40,000 children die of hunger or disease, all because of a lack of money.

Moreover, every country in the world — industrialized and Third-World countries alike — is struggling with debts that cannot be repaid and many of these countries cannot even pay the interest on their foreign debts. Individuals are also swallowed up in this spiral of debt. According to a report of the Vanier Institute of the Family released last February, Canadian family debt, on an average, has reached $100,000. On average, a Canadian family owes nearly $1,500 for every $1,000 earnings after tax deductions.

To correct the financial system

The Church cannot remain indifferent to situations like hunger in the world and indebtedness, which jeopardize the salvation of souls. This is why she calls for a reform of the financial and economic systems, to put them at the service of the human person. For example, Pope John Paul II’s calls along these lines were countless. Already, in his first Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man, March 4, 1979), the Holy Father spoke of “the indispensable transformations of the structures of economic life of poverty amidst plenty that brings into question the financial and monetary mechanisms… man cannot become the slave of economic systems…” And for now, we will add only this quote:

“Again, I want to tackle a very delicate and painful issue. I mean the torment of the representatives of several countries, who no longer know how to face the fearful problem of indebtedness. A structural reform of the world financial system is, without doubt, one of the initiatives that seem the most urgent and necessary.” (Message of the Holy Father to the 6th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva, September 26, 1985.)

The Church therefore presents the moral principles on which any financial or economic system must be judged. And so that these principles may be applied in a practical way, the Church calls on the lay faithful — whose proper role, according to the Second Vatican Council, is to renew the temporal order and bring it in order with God’s plan — to work for the search of concrete solutions and the establishment of an economic system that conforms to the teachings of the Gospel and to the principles of the Church’s social doctrine.

Social Credit

It is for these reasons that Louis Even decided to spread the Social Credit doctrine — a set of principles and financial proposals that were set forth for the first time in 1918 by the Scottish engineer, Clifford Hugh Douglas, to solve the problem of the chronic shortage of purchasing power in the hands of the consumers. The words “social credit” mean social money or national money, money issued by society, as opposed to the present money that is a “banking credit”, money issued by the banks.

When Louis Even discovered the great light of Social Credit in 1935, he immediately understood how this solution would put into application Christian principles of social justice in economics — especially regarding the right of all to the use of material goods, the distribution of the daily bread to all — through the allocation of a social dividend to every human being. This is why, as soon as he came across this light, Louis Even made it his duty to make it known to all.

The duty of every Christian

On July 3, 1980, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, John Paul II addressed 150,000 workers:

“An essential condition is to provide the economy with a human meaning and logic. It is necessary to free the various fields of existence from the dominion of subjugating economism. Economic requirements must be put in their right place ... No one is dispensed from collaborating in this task… Christians, wherever you are, assume your share of responsibility in this immense effort for the human restructuring of the city. Faith makes it a duty for you.”

It is a duty and an obligation for every Christian to work for the establishment of a better economic system and John Paul II pointed out that “no one is dispensed from collaborating in this task.” And this means, even if the task turns out to be difficult, wrote the Holy Father. (It cannot be any other way, since when one attacks the monopoly of the controllers of money and credit, one attacks the greatest power in this world.)

In spite of the lack of understanding, grievances and opposition of all kinds, there should be no room for discouragement, since this task is “urgent and necessary,” as it was previously said:

“Anyone wishing to renounce the difficult yet noble task of improving the lot of man in his totality, and of all people, with the excuse that the struggle is difficult and that constant effort is required, or simply because of the experience of defeat and the need to begin again, that person would be betraying the will of God the Creator.” (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, n. 30.)

The love of neighbour

The most fundamental reason every Christian must work for the establishment of a better economic system is that we will be judged on what we have done for our brothers and sisters in need. Jesus identified Himself with those who suffer, as it is written in the Gospel: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt. 25:40). The Christian faith teaches us to see Christ in each of our brothers and to love our neighbour as we love Christ.

There are, of course, many ways to help our brothers in need: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, visiting the imprisoned and the sick, etc. Some will send donations to charitable organisms, whether to help the poor of our country or of the Third World. These donations may relieve some poor people for a few days or weeks but they do not suppress the causes of poverty.

What is important is to correct the problem at its root, to attack the very cause of poverty, and to re-establish every human being in his rights and his dignity as a person created in the image of God and a being entitled to a minimum of earthly goods. And to give to each what is his due is precisely in what justice consists:

“More than any other, the individual who is animated by true charity labors skillfully to discover the causes of misery, to find the means to combat it and to overcome it resolutely. A creator of peace, he will follow his path, lighting the lamps of joy and playing their brilliance and loveliness on the hearts of men across the surface of the globe, leading them to recognize, across all frontiers, the faces of their brothers, the faces of their friends.” (Paul VI, Encyclical letter Populorum Progressio on the development of peoples, n. 75.)

Louis Even had discovered the cause of the misery of the people — the creation and control of money by private banks — and also the means to combat this swindle: the education of the people.

In order to insure that the authentic Social Credit message would reach the population and most of all, because his heart was full of great charity towards his neighbor, Louis Even went so far as to quit his job in the middle of the Great Depression. In 1935, he founded his journal, “Vers Demain”, and gave all of himself and his time to the cause of justice. He became, literally, a “pilgrim” on the roads of Canada, making the great light of Social Credit known to all his brothers and sisters. His example od dedication and self-giving brought other apostles to follow him.

Louis Even was not only a genius but also an unparalleled apostle and it is for this reason that the Movement he founded managed to go through every persecution imaginable, self-dedication being more powerful than all the millions of the Bankers. One can read in the Gospel: “greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13); this is actually what Louis Even did. Not only did he preach charity and justice but he also lived what he preached.

The message of the Louis Even Institute is now diffused all over the world, with millions of offprints distributed free of charge (via containers) in more than ten languages, thanks to the donations of our benefactors.

The Popes said that the transformation of the economic structures will be obtained only through the apostolate, self-dedication and sacrifices made for the love of one’s neighbor and this is exactly the method put forward by Louis Even with his Work of the Pilgrims of Saint Michael:

“These attitudes and ‘structures of sin’ are only conquered — presupposing the help of divine grace — by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one’s neighbour”. (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, n. 38.)

Divine assistance is especially needed when one knows that the real goal of the Financiers is the establishment of a world government — which includes the destruction of Christianity and of the family — and that the promoters of the New World Order are actually led by Satan himself, whose sole aim is the ruin of souls. Back in 1946, C.H. Douglas wrote the following in the Liverpool periodical The Social Crediter:

“We are engaged in a battle for Christianity. And it is surprising to see in how many ways this is true in practice. One of these ways goes almost unnoticed — except in its deviations — the emphasis put by the Roman Catholic Church on the family, against the implacable and continuous effort of the Communists and Socialists — who, together with the International Financiers, form the true body of the Antichrist — to destroy the very idea of the family and substitute the State for it.”

And Louis Even wrote on the same subject in 1973: “In an engagement against the financial dictatorship, one does not deal only with terrestrial powers. Like the Communist dictatorship, like the powerful organization of Freemasonry, the financial dictatorship is under the command of Satan. Simple human weapons will never be able to overcome that power. What is needed are the weapons chosen and recommended by She who must crush definitely the head of Satan, She who declared Herself, at Fatima, that Her Immaculate Heart will triumph in the end. And these weapons are: the consecration to Her Immaculate Heart, marked by the wearing of the Scapular, the Rosary and penance.”

The Rosary Crusade

That’s where one sees all the importance and greatness of the Rosary Crusade instituted by Louis Even, which consists in visiting families to have them pray a decade of the Rosary and then to present to them our MICHAEL Journal. Louis Even, who had been consecrated himself to Mary since the age of 17, understood the importance of a devotion to the Blessed Virgin for the present times.

The door-to-door Rosary Crusade is an incomparable school that forms apostles who learn how to dedicate themselves for the love of their neighbour. It is through example that the people see that our message is true. Besides giving to the people the beautiful light of Social Credit, we strengthen them in their Catholic faith, which is more than urgent because of all the sects that are gaining too much ground.

In passing, the Pilgrims of Saint Michael or “White Berets” are not a cult nor a sect; they did not invent a religion: they are Roman Catholics who preach loyalty to all the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI.

No sector of life in society should be closed to the teaching of Christ: all the existing systems — including economic and financial — must submit to moral laws and be put at the service of the human person. Many might remember the words of Pope John Paul II on October 22, 1978, at the Mass marking the beginning of his Pontificate: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ! To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of civilization, culture and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man’. He alone knows it.”

And Pope John Paul II also said at Flueli, Switzerland, on June 14, 1984: “As a democratic society, see carefully to all that is happening in this powerful world of money! The world of finance is also a human world, our world, submitted to the conscience of all of us; for it too exist ethical principles. So see especially to it that you may bring a contribution to world peace with your economy and your banks, and not a contribution — perhaps in an indirect way — to war and injustice!”

To sum up, the battle of the MICHAEL Journal is a battle for the salvation of souls. This periodical only repeats what the Pope and the Church demand: a new evangelization — to remind Christians of the basic Church principles, they who seem to have forgotten them or have totally ceased to put them into practice — and a restructuring of the economic systems. To be a Pilgrim of St. Michael in the Work of MICHAEL is therefore the most urgent and necessary vocation of our times. All our readers are invited to find new subscribers to help us. How great and important the Work of Louis Even is!