Page 18 - Reflexions of African Bishops and Priests

The Social Credit Lessons Are Based

on the Social Doctrine of the Church

We must take action to settle the problem of poverty

The Pilgrims of St. Michael had the honor to receive
His Eminence Cardinal Bernard Agre at their 2008 Con-
gress in Rougemont, Canada. He participated in Rome,
along with four other Cardinals and other members of
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to the real-
ization of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church. Being knowledgeable on social issues he
was likely to be interested in the Work of the Pilgrims
of St. Michael, and that’s what happened indeed!
Here are excerpts from the very comforting confer-
ence of Cardinal Agre at the International Congress of
the Pilgrims of St. Michael on August 31, 2008:
by Cardinal Bernard Agre
Miss Tardif, dear directors, dear full-time of the
Work of the Pilgrims of St. Michael, sympathizers,
ladies and gentlemen: I begin by greeting you cordially
as Jesus greeted his apostles: “shalom!” May peace
be in your hearts! May you have no fear and believe in
a better tomorrow!
This is my second contact with the Pilgrims of St.
Michael. (The first contact was in June, see end of arti-
cle.) When we received the invitation, I had read a while
ago in your journal (May-June-July, 2004 issue in Eng-
lish) that we receive, the intervention that I made, rather
unexpectedly, at the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace in Rome to which I belong; I had spoken about the
“blockage of development in Africa by the banks.”
I wanted to come, but I hesitated a bit. So I called
someone in Canada and was told: “The Pilgrims of St. In Italy I spoke with directors of large enterprises
Michael? Beware! They are cranks!” in Milan, and they said to me: “Ivory Coast is not only
a rich country, but an extremely rich country.”
Then I said to myself: how can they be cranks
and at the same defend an ideal like they do, it’s very So then they started to list all that my country pro-
surprising! So I came (last June), I saw, I really liked duces — Ivory Coast is not very big, it covers an area
what I saw, and I came back! about as large as Italy with 17 million inhabitants. You
You are a movement that is very Marial. When I will find in this country: agriculture — it is the first pro-
ducer of cocoa in the world; coffee, third producer in
first came last June, I wanted to see and hear, I learned the world; wood, pineapples, fruits of all kinds, and
a lot, and I saw the pedagogy of your lecturers. I went many bananas. The French believed that grapevines
through your books, and found them not bad at all! I or wheat would not grow in Ivory Coast. The grape-
continue to observe and will see in a little while what vines grow very well and they produce good fruit.
we will do. As I said to Miss Tardif just a little while ago, There is plenty of oil (about as much as in Kuwait) and
we will start by making people aware of your message, natural gas, as well as gold and diamonds. What do
and after we will see about a permanent centre. It was you think of that?
like this with the Focolari, I sent people there (in Italy)
and after I went myself, and then they came (to Ivory The problem is that the people are poor in a rich
Coast) and stayed. country like this. We walk on gold and the people are
poor.
What brings us here? It is the recurrent prob-
lem of poverty in the countries that are called “de- In Switzerland — I went to visit northern and
veloping” or “poor” countries. southern Switzerland, I went often to preach retreats

18 2008 session www.michaeljournal.org