Page 35 - HQ May June July 2020

ing a salary from employment to material goods of the earth. Every of their mission. They are usurpers!
everyone is not the way. We can- man! Any man who has a soul Thieves! In our code of national
not give wages to everyone; even has reason, has he not? Reason is law, or in provincial law, I would like
more so today, when modern what makes the human soul what to see the section that guarantees
technology progressively reduces it is and it is what distinguishes these rights for every Canadian.
the need for workers! us from animals. Every man has a In our Catholic provinces and our
The other day I was reading fundamental right to the goods of neighboring provinces [in Canada],
a passage from Dr. Bryan Mo- the earth just because he is man; where is the section of the legisla-
nahan, the Director of the Social not for any other reason. What is tion guaranteeing that every person
Credit Secretariat [in 1957], and the basis of my right to my daily may exercise his fundamental right
the immediate successor to Major bread? It is that I am a man, that I to use the goods of the earth?
C. H. Douglas. He said: “It is the was born! Disinheritance
conflict between progress and the The Pope added something
search for full employment which which has not yet been achieved: Cardinal Paul-Emile Leger
is at the root of inflation today!” “This is left to the human will founded a hospital in Montreal
It seems that as soon as and to the legal forms of na- for the underprivileged. This is a
beautiful work among many other
technologies are developed that tions”. The “legal forms” refers such admirable efforts to help the
reduce the need for labour, we to legislation which is left up to poor.
proceed to create other jobs by man and the community to de-
manufacturing weapons, building velop. It is left to the legislators to But why are there so many
factories and extracting minerals establish in more detail the prac- disadvantaged and disinherited
that are not presently needed — tical realization of this right but it people and why do we say they
doing all this in order to supply is never allowed for them to deny are “have-nots”? The reason is be-
jobs to everyone. None of this the right, nor to prevent men from cause they have lost their inherit-
will be used for the building of exercising it. ance; their rights to the goods of
homes, but it will be calculated Legislators who do not recog- the earth, which God created for
into the cost of the home, and nize the right of every person to all men. Man has a twofold inherit-
thus add to its price. This is the earthly goods or who set barriers ance: the goods of the earth and
basic cause of inflation. Instead to access this right are legislators the cultural inheritance. We have
of giving us more leisure time contravening the fundamental already spoken about the goods of
for cultural advancement and rights of man and are not worthy the earth, now let us take a look at u
to prepare ourselves for eternal At the 1957 Congress, Mrs. Gilberte Cote-Mercier, co-foundress of MI-
life, they are creating more jobs
to keep us fully employed! Even CHAEL, received a certificate in recognition of 25 years of full-time service
some very good Catholics will say in the apostolate. She stands between Miss Florentine Seguin (left) and Miss
to us: “Man must be employed Therese Tardif (right). Both ladies are, to this day, full-time Pilgrims of St.
at all times! He must work by the Michael residing in Rougemont, Canada. Louis Even is also in the photo.
sweat of his brow. Otherwise he
will not have earned his bread!”
I will continue to quote from
Pope Pius XII. It is a wonderful
text!: “Every man, as a being
endowed with reason...”. Rea-
son is what distinguishes us from
animals. The Pope does not say
“as a Christian”; he does not say
“as a Catholic”; he does not even
say “as someone called to eter-
nal life”. He says, “as a being en-
dowed with reason”. This is true
humanism!
“Every man, as a human be-
ing endowed with reason!” Not
as an employee, but as a being
endowed with reason! In fact, it is
by the very nature of man that he
has the fundamental right to the