Fr. Henri Boulad attended our Week of Study in Rougemont, Canada in September (see his sermon on page 5 of this issue of MICHAEL). Here are some of his introductory remarks offered on the first day of the study session on September 22 followed by his comments at its end on September 27.
by Father Henri Boulad, SJ
First a big thank you for your invitation [to this study session]. I am an Egyptian Jesuit priest, involved with Caritas for 50 years. I have a dream; an ideal; a goal; a mission: to change the world. Just that!
Development and social justice are very good, but behind these ideals there is the problem of global finance, which the Pilgrims of St. Michael have recognized. Two things characterize your group: you have identified that social justice is not only a temporal matter but also a spiritual one.
Today there is a trend in the Catholic Church that makes people who engage in social justice become social workers and community developers; the spiritual dimension can be forgotten. However, if we do not change the heart of man, we have done nothing! For me, I am a Jesuit priest, engaged in the social realm, not only as an advocate for economic and social development, but to change hearts.
Enough of this two-speed world, enough of this exploitation! I learned that Rockefeller, one of the richest men in history, had a daily income of $3.6 billion. Daily! If he gave me only one percent, I would be happy!
We must work to correct this situation. When I recently learned about the antics of Freemasonry and money through a Trinitarian priest, the late Fr. John Paul Regimbald, whom some of you must have known, I was terrorized. I knew that Freemasonry had infiltrated finance, but not to the extent described. He painted such a bleak picture of the situation that one interviewer asked Fr. John Paul: “With all that, do you still have hope?” The answer was: “Absolutely! Christ has conquered; He has defeated the dragon, He will have the last word”.
Here are excerpts from Father Boulad’s concluding reflections at the end of our study session on September 27:
Your book, “Economic Democracy” is magnificent! Magnificent because when the French Revolution proclaimed political democracy with the slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!”, it existed on paper but not in reality. What is wonderful in this study is how you have translated political democracy in a concrete way. Take for example the word “liberty” or “freedom”: can I have liberty or freedom if I have nothing to eat?
God created the earth overflowing with natural and human resources. It is rich and amply supplied. In the very notion of creation we see abundance and fullness. Look at the forests and the oceans, see the solar energy pouring from the sun onto the earth - billions of billions of kilowatts every moment. All these resources are more than we can use. This is not to say that we must not have some concerns but the Earth is capable of feeding not only 7 billion people, but 70 billion. I have proofs and figures that this is true.
As Louis Even said, it is a matter of distribution, and not a question of a lack of resources or production. When in the 18th century, Thomas Malthus predicted widespread famine in the world, using calculations pertaining to the demographics of the planet, he did not foresee one simple factor: that technological growth from the application of scientific technique progresses 50 times more than the growth of the population! 50 times more! To talk about population growth without taking other factors into account is to panic unnecessarily. When we talk now about the need to limit growth, births, etc., we ignore the reality that there are huge surpluses everywhere.
So, the problem identified by Louis Even is quite relevant: it is not about production or resources, it is a problem of distribution. Mankind has tried to settle the discussion by organizing a system of thievery: a handful of multibillionaires rule the world and pocket huge revenues without doing anything; without producing anything at all.
An immense benefit of Christianity is that the human person is situated at the centre of the system. No other system, political regime, philosophical school or religion, except for the Catholic Church, has at its centre the unique reality that the human person has an inherent respect regardless of physical or mental strength, social status, etc. Let wars be waged; wars are created to sell arms, and hundreds, thousands, millions are killed in these wars. No problem for the world’s big financiers! Money has supplanted the person. The human being has no value today. If Christianity has relevance, it is to insist on the centrality and dignity of the human person.
We must think and create new solutions. I salute Louis Even’s initiative: he took action instead of hand wringing and lamenting that “There is poverty, it is tragic!” Social Credit is wonderful. I repeat the words of [study session instructor] Alain Pilote that it is about “creating the legal, social and political structures to ensure everyone has the minimum necessary to live decently”. We are called to invent a new order; not the unfolding New World Order which is only a fight between raptors who aim to drain the world’s wealth toward some banks and some individuals who are the masters of the world. But, how can we take the principle of equality; that all should have access to the goods of the Earth and translate this truth into reality with laws and regulations?
Economic Democracy consists of putting in place mechanisms that will allow true Liberty, true Equality and true Fraternity. It must cover the needs of men, provided that these needs are real and not artificial. Now, the New World Order that is taking over the planet does not aim for the good of the human being but is rather motivated by profit; it has created fictitious and illusory needs.
Without a spiritual base, the world will move further into decadence because it is the spiritual that is the basis of everything.
What I admire about the Pilgrims’ movement is that God is at the center, with the Virgin Mary. The association between Social Credit and Fatima is meaningful. The fact that you not only talk about prayer but that your life is regulated by prayer throughout the day is significant. You aim to create not only a socio-politico-economic order, but one rooted in the spiritual dimension. Such a model answers the fundamental questions: Why do I live? Why do I exist? Where am I going? What is beyond death? Without a theological basis man is only a type of experiment.
Another notion that I appreciated this week is that what is legal is not necessarily right; what is legally allowed is not necessarily moral. People confuse everything: abortion is legal, so it is allowed. Legally, yes, but morally, no! This is where I say we require reflection to see how our politicians, economists and others have mixed up everything. Clarity today is essential. Every day I focus on the political, economic and scientific news to reflect and consider where the world is going. Where are we going? Where do we want to go? The fall of a dictator, an election, the European Union, Brexit... all these events mean what?
In the same vein, I think it is urgent for us to know what’s going on and not just from the evening news on television. The media distorts and perverts reality and creates misinformation. They are pulling your leg and you are being told lies. Consider Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede who campaigns for the protection of the environment. It was touching to see this little girl crying and it made us cry. We said to ourselves: “She must be right because she is crying.” She even addressed the United Nations this week. But who pushed her to the UN, if not the globalists, who have the UN and all international bodies in their pocket? One has to think about what’s behind current events. Today we must think together and not in isolation. For example, we can form study circles, choose a theme and investigate it beyond a superficial understanding, as has been done in Rougemont this week.
For me, the new evangelization is one that will give hope to the world. Shapers of history were all considered utopians. Faced with seemingly desperate situations, they took up the challenge. Here we are, a handful of people, naive, but audacious enough to believe that we can change the world. Yes, we can change the world. It began with only twelve [the Apostles], then seventy-two, etc. When we see how Christianity has changed the fabric of history we can say: “Let’s go back to Christ and this revolutionary force called Christianity”.
Faith must become a living source in us and an active force in society. Faith is the nerve of history. Those who acted in history believed in an ideal. We must believe that another world is possible, and that Jesus did not come to earth without a reason. Remember He won! Do not panic as we are in a battle that is already won.
The Virgin Mary, who appeared at Fatima in 1917, gave dire warnings but also offered us hope: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph” she told us. Let us ask her for the strength of faith and the light of hope to guide us in this movement; in what each one of us attempts to accomplish in our little corner of the planet.