Page 61 - Reflexions of African Bishops and Priests

Most Rev. Basile Mve Engone, S.D.B. (Salesian), invest, how the financial powers of the United States,
Archbishop of Libreville, Gabon: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
I am very happy to take part in the week of study can invest. He said that, of course, we can start to build
of the Pilgrims of St. Michael on Social Credit. I would roads and electrical centers, but the country will be
like to say that this week was an edifying and rich heavily in debt, and precisely because of these debts,
experience, because it permitted us to understand the the country will be at our mercy. This is just to say that
functioning of finance better. We see this subject from we are dealing with serious situations here.
a distance but we do not see how it’s organized, or
how it functions.
I thank Louis Even and all the Pilgrims of St. Michael
that continue this mission, a mission to make sure that
men and women take the present and the future in hand
with dignity, to fight against poverty while applying
Social Credit. This really interested me, to see the link
that you made between Social Credit and the Social
Doctrine of the Church in order to help us, to help man,
to help the Christian to commit himself in this battle
against poverty: this struggle to appropriate the goods
that God gives to all men, so that they might satisfy
their daily needs. It also permitted me to understand
the vicious character of money, the inhuman character
of the power of money that renders man practically
useless for society and for himself.
And I think that the experience that I have lived is an
experience that comforts me in our struggle to make
the life of man more human, more beautiful and rich. I
think that we can win this fight, but not alone. We can Mass in Rougemont’s church during the week of study
win it together, in unity. And so thank you, I give thanks to God for this
I also think that the experience that I have lived and work, to Louis Even, to Mrs. Gilberte Cote-Mercier
shared will be, perhaps for all of you as well, a new and Mr. Gerard Mercier, the founders and all of you.
dawn… What the Pilgrims of St. Michael propose is Thank you for commiting yourselves in the road of
to ensure that man is no longer set aside, but has a justice. I admire you. And the testimonies that I heard
part in his own development and to participate in this yesterday from the men and women really struck and
development. touched me. We feel that they are people who believe
Most Rev. Louis Portella MBUYU, Bishop of in a cause, who have engaged themselves and who
Kinkala, President of the Episcopal Conference wish to do so to the end. There have certainly been
of Congo and of the Association of the Episcopal many trials. But despite these trials, this is obvious;
Conferences of Central Africa: but well, in spite of these problems, I can tell you:
Thank you for the teaching received; this course Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, as the Epistle to the
unveils the secrets that shape our economic and Hebrews says (12:1-2); we have to run with endurance
social world today… It deserves a mobilization of the race that is set before us. Therefore may the Lord
hearts, lives, of everybody. What you do here needs help each of you today, whether you are young or old,
to be spread and better known… The problem is so to go to the end, because your cause is the very cause
important and urgent; there is no time to sleep. It really of Jesus Christ…
is a mystery of iniquity that people can take pleasure That which you do is part of the proclamation of
in the suffering of others, in the misery of others. It is the Gospel. So, it is not only a social and economic
not human. Man was not created for that. It’s evil and commitment. It is really the proclamation of the
satanic! Gospel. In the Synod of 1971 in Rome, the synodal
Congratulations for choosing to fight for this Fathers reminded us that the fight for justice and the
cause, because this issue is not taken from a special transformation of the world is an integral part of the
category; it is a cause that concerns all humanity. proclamation of the Gospel. And in your commitment,
We know that today the world is under the control of it is the proclamation of the Gospel that you are doing.
financial magnates who dominate the world in order to So then, what a mission!
fight against humanity. When we read the testimony of I am happy also to hear what was said, for example,
John Perkins, how he states that in a certain country about the United States and Poland; that more and
(in this case Indonesia), Perkins was sent to see how to more you have universities that take into account this u

Aug, 2011 session