Page 39 - Reflexions of African Bishops and Priests

“We Came, finance. But we may approve the principle, and we ap-
prove it with all our strength.
We Saw, Now that we have been won over by this teaching

and We of Social Credit, we will return home. What will come
after? Myself I see future prospects more in terms of
Believed” collaboration. I say it on two accounts: as bishop of
the diocese, I can commit myself on the level of my
diocese, to pass on the teaching I received here, but
Bishop all the more so as being in charge of the Justice and
Fridolin Peace Commission for my country. I believe that the
Commission for Justice and Peace in various countries
Ambongo, are the best ally of Social Credit, of the teaching that
O.F.M. Cap. we have received here, because this teaching is part
of top proprities. It remains to be seen, what has been
sor for nine years, speaking of the social teaching of done so far at the level of the Commission for Justice
the Church at the Catholic University of Kinshasa, until and Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and
I was ordained a bishop. how we may elaborate a strategy of action to popular-
I know the Social Doctrine of the Church but what ize this Social Credit system among our population.
was new to me was this method of applying the So- Bishop Fridolin Ambobgo
cial Doctrine to a concrete problem, presented in an
organic way with great ease by our brilliant professor, A Church of Militant Faithful
Alain Pilote. He presented a difficult subject in a simple
way, with good humor. Here are some thoughts of Most. Rev. Thomas
Some of us had studied the subject before arriv- Kabore, bishop of the diocese of Kaya in Burkina
ing here, but I did not have any information on Social Faso, and President of the Commission for Justice
Credit. I heard of it when I arrived here. This theory was and Peace for his country:
developed in ten lessons; the whole thing became so “I came here
clear, I was able to make sense of it. The third element above all because
which explains this marvelous discovery, was meeting of Bishop Basile.
people from around the world, particularly for me, the We have discov-
people from the United States and Canada. ered here a Church
A system that crushes us of militant faithful
For us Africans, North America is like a huge Satan, who are working
for the coming of
as the Iranians say. That is to say, the evil that befalls the Kingdom of
us, the financial or economic system that crushes us, God. What struck
today we think that the Americans are behind this sys- me was the theme
tem, we think that it is a system that is promoted and of your week of
supported by the Americans because it benefits them. study: “The daily
But we now see Americans and Canadians who bread distributed
are distancing themselves from this system. They are to all, the economy
making a critical and coherent analysis to dismantle, at the service of
this system of assassins, piece by piece. For me, this man.” What I dis-
was a great discovery. From our point of view, this covered above all
system was in the interest of the North Americans, is how the banks
but now we see that you, people of North America, appropriated for themselves the sovereign role of
are also the victims of this system. It is a system that creating money.
makes victims on all sides. The weight of this system The sovereign function of a nation is to cre-
is felt by the north and the south, in various degrees. ate money for the needs of that country. If we had
Finally, what above all encourages and consoles this possibility, the situation would change in every
me in this meeting is the discovery of a solution to the country. Then, the countries would really be sover-
problem of the debt of nations. Sometimes, we feel eign and could develop. Especially so when one
like there is nothing we can do, because these financial sees that money is made in such a simple way with
leaders are all-powerful. But this session opened our numbers, with the confidence, of course, of the ex-
eyes: another solution is possible; we did not enter change. It is really an interesting perspective. We
into the technical details but our professor said: “They are presently living in a system based on falsity.”
exist.” As for its applicability, it is not our field, we are
bishops and a bishop is not a specialist in international Bishop Thomas Kabore

www.michaeljournal.org 2010 session 39