October, month of the Rosary

For the Triumph of the Immaculate

A journal of Catholic patriotsfor the kingship of Christ and Maryin the souls, families, and countries

For a Social Credit economyin accordance with the teachings of the Churchthrough the vigilant action of heads of families

and not through political parties

Pilgrims of Saint Michael, 1101 Principale StreetRougemont, QC, Canada J0L 1M0

Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal aera (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601Publications Mail Reg. N° 40063742. (PAP) reg. N° 09929

website: www.michaeljournal.org Printed in Canada

Edition in English. 51st Year. No. 341 September-October, 2006 4 years: $20.00

On Sunday, October 1, 2006, prior to the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful gathered at the Papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father delivered the following reflection, translated from Italian:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, the first day of October, I would like to reflect on two aspects which char-acterize this month in the Ecclesial Com-munity: the prayer of the Rosary and the commitment to the Missions. This Satur-day, October 7, we will be celebrating the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and it is as though Our Lady invites us every year to rediscover the beauty of this prayer, so simple and so profound.

Our beloved John Paul II was a great Apostle of the Rosary: we remember him on his knees, his Rosary beads in his hands, immersed in the contemplation of Christ as he himself invited us to do in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

The Rosary is a contemplative and Christocentric prayer, inseparable from meditation on Holy Scripture. It is the prayer of the Christian who advances on his pilgrimage of faith, following Jesus and preceded by Mary.

Dear brothers and sisters, I would like to invite you during this month to recite the Rosary in the family, in the commun-ity and in parishes, for the Pope’s inten-tions, for the Church’s mission and for world peace.

October is also the missionary month, and on Sunday, the 22nd, we will be cele-brating World Mission Day. The Church is, by her very nature, missionary. “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20: 21), the Risen Jesus said to the Apostles at the Last Supper.

October, month of the RosaryLet us pray for world peace and justice

The Church’s mission is the extension of Christ’s mission: to bring God’s love to all, proclaiming it with words and with the concrete testimony of charity.

In my Message for the upcoming World Mission Day, I wanted to present charity precisely as “the soul of the mission”. St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, wrote: “The love of Christ impels us” (II Cor 5: 14). May every Christian make these words his own, in the joyful experience of being a missionary of love wherever Providence has placed him, with humility and courage, serving his neighbour with no ulterior motives, and drawing strength

from prayer for a cheerful and industrious charity (cf. Deus Caritas Est, nn. 32-39).

St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, the Car-melite virgin and doctor of the Church whom we are commemorating this very day, is universal Co-Patroness of the Mis-sions, together with St. Francis Xavier. May she, who pointed out trusting aban-donment to God’s love as the “simple” way to holiness, help us to be credible witnesses of the Gospel of charity. May Mary Most Holy, Virgin of the Rosary and Queen of Missions, lead us all to Christ the Saviour.

Benedict XVI

Page 2 September-October 2006“Michael” Journal, 1101 Principale St., Rougemont, QC, Canada — J0L 1M0Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal area (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601; www.michaeljournal.org

October, 2006

General: That all those who are baptized may mature in their faith and manifest it through clear, coherent and courageous choices in life.

Missionary: That the celebration of World Mission Day may everywhere increase the spir-it of missionary animation and cooperation.

November, 2006

General: That, everywhere in the world, an end be put to all forms of terrorism.

Missionary: That through the effort of be-lievers, together with the forces of society, the new and old chains which prevent the develop-ment of the African Continent may be broken.

December, 2006

General: That Christ, meek and humble of heart, may inspire leaders of nations to use pow-

er wisely and responsibly.Missionary: That in every part of the world

missionaries may live out their vocation with joy and enthusiasm, faithfully following in Christ’s footsteps.January 2007

General: That in our time, unfortunately marked by many episodes of violence, the Church’s Bishops and priests may continue to indicate the way of peace and understanding among peoples.

Missionary: That the Church in Africa may become a constantly more authentic witness of the Good News of Christ and be committed, in every nation, to the promotion of reconciliation and peace.

February 2007

General: That the goods of the earth, given by God for all men, may be used wisely and ac-cording to criteria of justice and solidarity.

Missionary: That the fight against diseases and great epidemics in the Third World may find, in the spirit of solidarity, ever more gen-erous collaboration on the part of the govern-ments of all nations.

March 2007

General: That the Word of God may be ever more listened to, contemplated, loved and lived.

Missionary: That the training of catechists, organizers and lay people committed in the ser-vice of the Gospel may be the constant concern of those responsible for the young Churches.

April 2007

General: That, allowing himself to be en-lightened and guided by the Holy Spirit, every Christian may answer enthusiastically and faith-fully to the universal call to sanctity.

Missionary: That the number of priestly and religious vocations may grow in North America and the countries of the Pacific Ocean, in order to give an adequate answer to the pastoral and missionary needs of those populations.

May 2007

General: That, following the example of the Virgin Mary, all Christians should allow them-selves to be guided by the Word of God and always remain attentive to the signs of the Lord in their own lives.

Missionary: That in mission territories there may be no lack of good and enlightened teach-ers in the major seminaries and in the Institutes of consecrated life.

June, 2007

General: That the Lord may protect sailors and all those involved in maritime activities.

Missionary: That the Church in North Africa

may bear witness, with its presence and its ac-tion, to God’s love for every individual and all people.

July, 2007

General: That all citizens, individually and in groups, may be enabled to participate act-ively in the life and management of the com-mon good.

Missionary: That, aware of their own mis-sionary duty, all Christians may actively help all those engaged in the evangelization of peoples.

August, 2007

General: That all those who are going through moments of inner difficulty and trial may find in Christ the light and support which leads them to discover authentic happiness.

Missionary: That the Church in China may bear witness to ever greater inner cohesion, and may manifest her effective and visible communion with Peter’s Successor.

September, 2007

General: That the ecumenical assembly of Sibiu in Rumania may contribute to the growth of unity among all Christians, for whom the Lord prayed at the Last Supper.

Missionary: That following Christ joyfully, all missionaries may know how to overcome the difficulties they meet in everyday life.

October, 2007

General: That the Christians who are in minority situations may have the strength and courage to live their faith and persevere in bear-ing witness to it.

Missionary: That World Missionary Day may be a propitious occasion for kindling an ever greater missionary awareness in every baptized person.

November, 2007

General: That those dedicated to medical research, and all those engaged in legislative activity, may always have deep respect for hu-man life, from its beginning to its natural con-clusion.

Missionary: That in the Korean Peninsula the spirit of reconciliation and peace may grow.

December, 2007

General: That human society may be solici-tous in the care of all those stricken with AIDS, especially children and women, and that the Church may make them feel the Lord’s love.

Missionary: That the incarnation of the Son of God, which the Church celebrates solemn-ly at Christmas, may help the peoples of the Asiatic Continent to recognize God’s Envoy, the only Saviour of the world, in Jesus.

The Pope’s missionary and general intentions

Contents“Michael”. September-October, 2006

Pages

October, month of the Rosary 1The Pope’s intentions of prayer 2Bertone slams IMF and World Bank 2Pope Benedict to Canadian Bishops 3Our fantastic Congress. Y. Poirier 4 to 6A message of Bishop Benjamin Almoneda 6The late Rolland Tessier. Th. Tardif 7Social Credit explained in 10 lessons 8Lesson 1: The end of economics 8 to 10Lesson 2: Poverty amidst plenty 11-12UFOs and alien beings 13-14Mary and the Moslems 14-15St. Rafael Guízar Valencia of Mexico 16Balance between interiority and work 16

Bertone slams IMF and World Bank’s “usury”In a lengthy interview with the Italian magazine 30 Giorni (30

Days), published on August 9, 2006, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then Archbishop of Genoa, but who was appointed secretary of state of the Vatican on September 15, described World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans to developing countries as “usury”; saying that he considered international lending by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and by richer coun-tries a form of usury that “should be declared illegal.”

He said loans become usury when they violate the right to life and other basic human rights. “Some technocrats, especially those of multinationals, the World Bank and the (International) Monetary Fund, have imposed unacceptable condi-tions on the poor populations, like forced sterilization and the obligatory closing of Catholic schools,” he said. He added that the Church’s social teaching calls for a “popular democratic capitalism” that benefits the greatest number of people and that favors economic creativity and healthy competition.

Page 3September-October 2006 “Michael” Journal, 1101 Principale St., Rougemont, QC, Canada — J0L 1M0Tel.: Rougemont (450) 469-2209; Montreal area (514) 856-5714; Fax (450) 469-2601; www.michaeljournal.org

On October 9, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI re-ceived the Bishops from the Western Catholic Conference of Canada, who were making their “ad limina” visit to the Vatican. Here are excerpts from the Pope’s address:

The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most appreciated passages of sacred Scripture. Its profound illustration of the mercy of God and the important human desire for conversion and reconciliation, as well as the restoration of sev-ered relations, speak to men and women of every age...

Dear Brothers, as you reflect upon the three characters in this parable – the Father in his abun-dant mercy, the younger son in his joy at being forgiven, and the elder brother in his tragic isola-tion – be confirmed in your desire to address the loss of a sense of sin, to which you have referred in your reports. This pastoral priority reflects an eager hope that the faithful will experience God’s boundless love as a call to deepen their ecclesial unity, and overcome the division and fragmen-tation that so often wound today’s families and communities. From this perspective, the Bishop’s responsibility to indicate the destructive presence of sin is readily understood as a service of hope: it strengthens believers to avoid evil, and to em-brace the perfection of love and the plenitude of Christian life.

I wish therefore to commend your promo-tion of the Sacrament of Penance. While this Sacrament is often considered with indifference, what it effects is precisely the fullness of healing for which we long. A new-found appreciation of this Sacrament will confirm that time spent in the confessional draws good from evil, restores life from death, and reveals anew the merciful face of the Father.

Understanding the gift of reconciliation calls for a careful reflection on the ways to evoke con-version and penance in man’s heart (cf. Recon-ciliatio et Paenitentia, 23). While manifestations of sin abound – greed and corruption, betrayed relationships and exploitation of persons – the recognition of individual sinfulness has waned. Behind this weakening of the recognition of sin, with its commensurate attenuation of the need to seek forgiveness, is ultimately a weakening of our relationship with God (cf. Address at Ecumenical Vespers, Regensburg, Germany, Sept. 12, 2006).

Not surprisingly this phenomenon is particu-larly pronounced in societies marked by secular-ist post-Enlightenment ideology. Where God is excluded from the public forum the sense of of-fence against God – the true sense of sin – dis-sipates, just as when the absolute value of moral norms is relativized, the categories of good or evil vanish, along with individual responsibility.

After having received the Bishops of Que-bec on May 11 (see our April-May, 2006 issue), and the Bishops of Atlantic Canada on May 22 (see our June-July-August, 2006 issue), Pope Benedict XVI received, on September 8, 2006, the Bishops of Ontario, Canada, who had just completed their “ad limina” visit. In his ad-dress, the Holy Father spoke about the “folly of the redefinition of spouse” and “the daily de-struction of unborn children”, lamenting that Catholic politicians in Canada have yielded to “ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls.” Here are some ex-cerpts from Pope Benedict’s speech:

In increasingly secularized societies such as yours, the Lord’s outpouring of love to hu-manity can remain unnoticed or rejected. By imagining that withdrawing from this relation-ship is somehow a key to his own liberation, man in fact becomes a stranger to himself, since “in reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear” (Gaudium et spes, n. 22). Dis-missive of the love which discloses the fullness of man’s truth, many men and women continue to walk away from the Lord’s abode into a wil-derness of individual isolation, social fragmen-tation and loss of cultural identity.

Within this perspective, one sees that the fundamental task of the evangelization of cul-ture is the challenge to make God visible in the human face of Jesus. In helping individuals to recognize and experience the love of Christ, you will awaken in them the desire to dwell in the house of the Lord, embracing the life of the Church. This is our mission...

God excluded from the public sphereToday, the impediments to the spreading

of Christ’s Kingdom are experienced most dramatically in the split between the Gospel and culture, with the exclusion of God from the public sphere. Canada has a well-earned reputation for a generous and practical com-mitment to justice and peace, and there is an

enticing sense of vibrancy and opportunity in your multicultural cities.

At the same time, however, certain values detached from their moral roots and full sig-nificance found in Christ have evolved in the most disturbing of ways. In the name of ‘tol-erance’ your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse, and in the name of ‘freedom of choice’ it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children. When the Creator’s divine plan is ignored, the truth of human nature is lost.

False dichotomies are not unknown within the Christian community itself. They are par-ticularly damaging when Christian civic lead-ers sacrifice the unity of faith and sanction the disintegration of reason and the principles of natural ethics by yielding to ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls. Democracy succeeds only to the extent that it is based on truth and a correct under-standing of the human person.

Catholic involvement in political life can-not compromise on this principle; otherwise Christian witness to the splendour of truth in the public sphere would be silenced and an autonomy from morality proclaimed (cf. Doc-trinal Note The Participation of Catholics in Pol-itical Life, 2-3; 6). In your discussions with pol-iticians and civic leaders, I encourage you to demonstrate that our Christian faith, far from being an impediment to dialogue, is a bridge, precisely because it brings together reason and culture.

Within the context of the evangelization of culture, I wish to mention the fine network of Catholic schools at the heart of ecclesial life in your Province. Catechesis and religious educa-tion is a taxing apostolate. I thank and encour-age those many lay men and women, together with religious, who strive to ensure that your young people become daily more appreciative of the gift of faith which they have received.

Benedict XVI

Yet, the human need to acknowledge and confront sin in fact never goes away, no matter how much an individual may, like the elder broth-er, rationalize to the contrary. As Saint John tells us: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive our-selves” (1 Jn 1:8). It is an integral part of the truth about the human person. When the need to seek forgiveness and the readiness to forgive are for-gotten, in their place a disturbing culture of blame and litigiousness arises. This ugly phenomenon, however, can be dispelled. Following the light of Christ’s healing truth is to say with the father: “My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours”, and we must be glad “because your broth-er ... who was lost ... is found” (Lk 15:31-32)...

Pope urges Canadian Bishopsto promote the Sacrament of Penance

“The folly of the redefinition of spouse”Pope’s address to the Bishops of Ontario


by Yvette Poirier

We had a wonderful Congress followed by a week of study of Social Credit. Here is the theme of the Congress placed on the front of the stage in the hall of the House of the Immaculate:

“In God’s family, no one ought to go without the necessities of life”: these words are taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical “God is Love”. In the same encyclical, the Pope adds that “the aim of a just social order is to guarantee to each person, according to the principle of sub-sidiarity, his share of the community’s goods.” This would be achieved so well by the Social Credit dividend to all, which would respect the dignity of the human person created in the image of God.

At the Congress all five continents were represented: America, by many Canadians and Americans, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico and Cuba; Africa by Tanzania, the Congo and Mada-gascar; Asia by the Philippines; Oceania by New Zealand; Europe by Poland, France, Austria and Switzerland.

Notable speakers helped us deepen our understanding of the great truth of Social Credit. During the week of study, Mr. Alain Pilote gave courses on the writings of Louis Even on Social Credit in ten well enriching lessons, well detailed and very understandable, even for the beginners (see page 8).

Peter and Henry Reynel of New Zealand

Mr. Henry Reynel, from New Zealand, who came with his son Peter, again enriched our minds by his explanations on Social Credit. Mr. Reynel, a disciple of Major C. H. Douglas, has been militant for Social Credit for the past 50 years. He is a pro-fessor and apostle of Social Credit in his country. The “Michael” Movement has brought him great hope. He said to us:

“They say that knowledge is power: that’s wrong! Knowledge with action is power; that is what is true. You have the knowledge, act.”

Dominador Gregorio and Fr. Norberto Eyule

Bishop Benjamin Almoneda, of the Diocese of Daet, in the Philippines, was present at our Con-gress two years ago, but could not come this year, due to last-minute health problems. However, he continues to win over those around him to the great truth of Social Credit. He sent us a repre-

sentative this year, Fr. Norberto Eyule, who came to the Congress last year. (See the message of the Bishop on page 6.) Mr. Dominador Gregorio, from the Movement “Couples for Christ”, was sent by Mr. Besinga, the “holy” banker who came last year. Our Filipino friends have translated the “Michael” leaflets into Tagalog. It is truly a miracle that is tak-ing place in the Philippines.

Like last year, during the Congress and the week of study, we took advantage of the enriching courses of Mr. Renaud Laillier, from France, and of Mr. Francois de Siebenthal, from Switzerland. We had a good assistance at the Congress. Our visitors from distant lands left with the determina-tion of spreading the work of “Michael” in their countries, of making known the great light of So-cial Credit.

Africa at the Congress

Fr. Chikawe and Bishop Bruno Ngonyani

Most Rev. Bruno Ngonyani, Bishop of Lindi, in Tanzania, was present at our Congress and for the week of study, along with Father Hugh Chikawe, a Tanzanian missionary from Florida. Both speak English. It was Mr. Yves Jacques who invited Fath-er Hugh to come to the Congress, and he (Father Hugh) invited his Bishop. In Tanzania, the popula-tion is about 37 million. It includes 120 tribes. The only national language is Swahili. Over 50 million people in East Africa speak Swahili. Father Hugh Chikawe will translate “The Money Myth” into Swahili as well as the “Michael” Journal.

Bishop Bruno said to us: “Because we are loaded with debts, be they in developing or de-veloped countries, and for quite a long time, we have been speaking of cancelling these debts, but these financiers, these bankers, are not go-ing to cancel the debts unless they are told, and not only told, but unless we insist upon it. The obligation which we have, we in develop-ing countries, and also in developed countries, is to speak out. We have to speak out that these debts are unjust, that these debts are making

the countries poorer, that these debts are a form of enslavement. We have to speak out !

“The result of speaking out can be twofold: the bankers can hear and understand what we are saying, and put it into practice. They can can-cel the debts. This is one way. The second way, which is also possible, is that they will continue to be adamant, that they will continue in their evil way, not listening to our plea. In any case, whether they listen to us or not, our contribu-tion will already be made. For God, we shall be, I could say, without sin in this respect.

“Now, here is what we are going to do after getting home: first, we intend to translate the ‘Michael’ leaflets and the ‘Michael’ Journals into Swahili. As you heard from Father Hugh, he is a journalist, so this is not a very big task for him; he will do it very gladly!

“Secondly, we have come here not as repre-sentatives of the Bishops’ Conference, yet, I see the challenge of contacting the other Bishops in Tanzania. Now, before doing that, I have first to take care of my diocese. So, I intend, after going back home, to first contact the priests and laity council meetings and talk to them about Social Credit to motivate them, and see how they ac-cept this idea. Because only after meeting the priests and the leaders of the laity councils can I be in a better position to spread the Social Cred-it idea in the diocese. Without these two groups — the priests and the leaders of the laity coun-cils — it will be very difficult for me. So I will try to influence them so that we walk together along this long road of fighting poverty, first of all in my diocese of Lindi.

“I have been meditating on the importance of the Louis Even Institute. I came to realize why St. Michael the Archangel and the Blessed Virgin Mary are very prominent in this Institute: both led the war against Lucifer and his followers; it is the Virgin Mary who crushed the head of the serpent. These two are fighting for God, for the Kingdom of God. Now, I like to congratulate you, Pilgrims of St. Michael, for the good work you are doing. The work of alleviating poverty is the task of all of us… Let us ask God to bless this Work, and I am sure He is blessing it ! The means you have adopted — first, to spread Social Credit — is a necessary one, because man is composed of both a body and a soul. The means you have adopted of having recourse to the Blessed Virgin Mary by saying the Rosary is also very necessary, because we need God’s help, which comes to us through His saints, and the Blessed Virgin Mary is number one among the saints.”

Speaking of the Congress and the week of study, Father Hugh told us:

The five continents were represented at our fantastic Congress

The priests who took part at our Congress celebrating Mass at Rougemont’s parish church

(continued on page 5)


“You begin everything here with prayer, and you end everything with prayer. All activities begin and end with prayer. You recite the Rosary, three Rosaries per day. I saw the balance be-tween prayer and the conferences. You give time for the spiritual life”. And he made us the follow-ing confession: “For the last ten years, I prayed to Padre Pio every day before I go to bed to find a solution to the problem of poverty. When I was given a chance to come here in Rougemont, I said to myself: ‘God has answered my prayer.’ Social Credit is an answer to my prayer. Thank you, and God bless you.”

From Madagascar, an island situated south-east of Africa, came Mr. Fulgence Rabemananjara, a great devotee to the Blessed Virgin, a represent-ative of Bishop Raymond who came last year. Mr. Fulgence is a customs officer who is very inter-ested in Social Credit. He has known of the Work of “Michael” for the last ten years. He has studied Social Credit, and he is overwhelmed by it. He translated Louis Even’s writings into Malagasy. Here are some of his words:

“I was able to publish my first book at the be-ginning of the year 2000. I introduced Social Credit in about twenty pages. Last year, I published my second book on Social Credit, a socio-economic-political book, written entirely in Malagasy, en-titled “Lovazo”. This title LOVAZO is formed by joining two Malagasy words: LOVA means in-heritance, what we inherit from our ancestors; ZO means right of each individual, the natural right so dear to Louis Even. Therefore, LOVAZO means right to the inheritance. But don’t we find that So-cial Credit is the right to the inheritance for all the population of the world ? My job as customs in-spector is a godsend for me to ‘discern’ in its just value the application of this Social Credit theory, the only one in my humble opinion capable of standing up to this crazy one-world government that is leading the world into hell!”

Miss Dina Razafimahatratra, from Madagas-car, who was again among us this year, held good meetings and days of study on Social Credit in some parishes in her diocese. ”Michael” leaflets translated into Malagasy circulated in all of these places. We sent a container of leaflets on Social Credit to Madagascar. During a meeting of the Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Raymond gave sev-eral bundles to the Bishops who left each for their own diocese with arms full of leaflets. The leaflet reserve will soon be gone.

Mr. Fulgence listed for us in one conference

all the riches in his country: precious stones, min-erals, coffee, etc. All is exploited by the foreign financiers. The profits go for the interest on the public debts, and the people receive nothing in return. Tens of thousands of hectares of land are uncultivated because the people have only their hands and feet to cultivate the earth. They do not have the financial means to obtain the ploughs or the zebu, big beef animals, that can be used to work the land.

“That is why,” Mr. Fulgence said to us, “So-cial Credit is urgent in Madagascar.”

11 are crowned Colonels with1,000 subscriptions or more

The Saturday night of the Congress our great apostle subscribers marched across the stage. We want to mention again the greatly devoted apostles crowned as Colonels. They deserve spe-cial mention. They are the great pillars of the Work of “Michael”.

Patrick Tétrault 4,031Mr. & Mrs. Benoît Ouellet 2,037Mr. & Mrs. Bertrand Gaouette 2,005Mr. & Mrs. Roger Gingras 1,637Mr. & Mrs. Yves Jacques 1,410Janusz A. Lewicki, Poland 1,230Lionel Bournival 1,078Fr. Boguslaw Jaworowski, Poland 1,060Alyre Richard 1,033Mrs. Simone Gingras 1,613Mrs. Marie-Jacqueline Potvin 1,000

During this New Year 2006-2007 that we are undertaking, let us ask the Blessed Virgin and Saint Michael the Archangel to enflame our hearts with love for God and our neighbor. The darkness obscures the earth more than ever. We must carry the flame of truth to enlighten souls of good will who search for the light and do not find it. Society needs noble souls to guide it.

Dear readers and subscribers to the “Michael” Journal, you are all invited to solicit subscriptions to this journal around you, among your relatives, friends, and acquaintances, whoever you meet.

Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels among the Full-time Pilgrims

Your Full-time Missionaries are all admirable

because they consecrate their time fully to the Work of “Michael” and never take vacations. They do not all have the freedom from duties or the health to do the door to door regularly, but all ac-complish an immense work for the advancement of the Work of “Michael”. Here is the list of Full-time Pilgrims crowned Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels:

Melvin Sickler 4,857Pierre Marchildon 4,435Jacek Morawa 3,003Yvette Poirier 2,065Lucie Parenteau 1,714Christian Burgaud, France 1,559Marcelle Caya 1,545Lambert Boucher 1,419Diane Guillemette 1,359Gérard Migneault 1,324Diane Roy 1,220Réjean Lefebvre 712Carlos A. Reyes, Ecuador 618Mrs. Teresa Reyes, Ecuador 618

In the month of August, Mr. Alyre Richard and Mr. Melvin Sickler went to Nova Scotia for two weeks. They gathered in all 358 subscriptions to the “Michael” Journal. On September 16th, Mr. Christian Burgaud went out on the Rosary Cru-sade with Mr. Henri Bussieres in the Trois-Rivieres area. They gathered 56 subscriptions.

During the Congress, Mr. Jacek Morawa, our Polish Full-time Pilgrim, gave us an interesting re-port of his tour of apostolate with the good Father Boguslaw Jaworowski from Poland. They went to Western Canada and to the United States in dif-ferent Polish parishes where the good missionary Father gave profound spiritual conferences. He would then invite the people to subscribe to the Polish or English “Michael” Journal. They did so well that the two apostles took close to 1,200 sub-scriptions.

Poland was again represented this year by our devoted Mr. Janusz A. Lewicki, a Colonel with 1,230 subscriptions, and by Father Jozef Jakubiec of Krakow. He was accompanied by Mr. Stefan Majerczak, the president of Catholic Action in the Archdiocese of Krakow. There was also the Pol-ish Father Tadeusz Bienasz, a professor at a Cath-olic University in Austria. All are very interested in Social Credit. Our Poles want to introduce So-cial Credit in Catholic centers. They have it in their program to demand an income for the mother at home.

Latin AmericaMr. and Mrs. Carlos Reyes are Full-time Mis-

sionaries in Ecuador. Latin America was also repre-sented by Miss Nemiliz Gutierrez, from Mexico; by Mr. Jose Rodrigo Jaramillo and Mrs. Alba Salazar, both from Columbia and responsible for a group of young people with whom they distribute leaf-lets; by Mr. Juan David Gomez and Miss Carolina Marinas from Columbia; and by Mrs. Betzabe Nori-ega, from Peru. They are all collaborators with Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Reyes. They put into their program to spread the Spanish “San Miguel” Journal and to spread the light of Social Credit. We know that Latin America was the victim of indoctrination in “Liberation Theology” that is in line with Marxism. Social Credit is timely to enlighten their minds.

Our Polish visitors, from left to right: Mrs. Teresa Reyes, Janusz Lewicki, Fr. Tadeusz Bienasz,Fr. Boguslaw Jaworowski, Stephan Majerczak, Fr. Jozef Jakubiec

(continued from page 4)

Fulgence Rabemananjara (left) andDina Razafimahatratra of Madagascar

From left to right: Patrick Tétrault, Melvin Sickler, Pierre Marchildon



Mr. Juan David Gomez is a young man with a heart full of fire. He accompanied Mr. Pierre Marchildon for several weeks when he went to South Amer-ica. Mr. Gomez gave great conferences dur-ing the week of study and at the Congress. He told us that in the last 40 years in Colum-bia there have been 9 civil wars; 300,000 Columbians were killed; 85% of the property is in the hands of 15% of the population. Many Columbians live in great poverty. This pov-erty favors corruption. Mr. Juan David sees there-fore a great necessity for Social Credit to get his country out of this great misery.

Miss Caroline Marinas, present at the sessions of the Congress and the week of study, rendered us a great service during the meetings by translating the conferences from Spanish to French or French to Spanish. Our Columbians do a magnificent apostolate in Columbia through the distributions of the “San Miguel” leaflets, subscribing others to the “San Miguel” Journal, and by meetings. Their work is effective since they are already starting to suffer persecution by some of the authorities. This year all our Columbians, listed above, distributed with their helpers a container of “San Miguel” leaflets, the little brother to the “Michael” Journal. Here are Mr. Juan David’s words:

“Upon returning to Columbia, we will dedi-cate more time to our apostolate work. We need a container of leaflets to be sent as soon as pos-sible to Columbia… I also want to help Mr. Carlos Reyes with the Spanish-language edition of the “Michael” Journal. I thank the good God for mak-ing the Work of “Michael” known to us. Let us stay united. People speak to us of elections. The candi-date that we are pushing, it is Christ. Let us begin to live our Heaven on the earth, and on the other side we will continue. May God bless you all ! ”

Mr. Juan David Gomez, like the other atten-dees at the Congress, greatly appreciated the way the week of study took place. He told us:

“It has been a wonderful week, so much more than what I had imagined it would be… I like being a Pilgrim of St. Michael. This is what I want to do in my life, after seeing you here living the Gospel… I don’t think that there is anything here that needs to be changed; I think that there are only things that need to be reinforced. It has been wonderful to have the Mass every day, to

pray the Rosary three times a day. I really liked the Rosary and Mass every day. I am sure that if we start spreading Social Credit and educat-ing the people, we will make Columbia the best country in the world, as it was meant to be by God... In our country, we must do exactly as in Rougemont, the apostolate and all.”

All our free time should be given to the apos-tolate. Let’s put in our program to make the Virgin Mary known and loved through the recitation of the Rosary, from door to door. How powerful this apostolate work is! You must experience it to real-ly understand its importance. Our Pilgrims have the courage to ask the families they visit from door to door to pray with them a decade of the Rosary, to bring the Angelic Salutation, just like St. Gabriel the Archangel brought the salutation of the Eternal Father.

Why could we not give all our Saturdays to the Rosary Crusade in the door to door? Here are good encouraging words from Bishop Bruno Ngonyani:

“In addition to thanking you for the good work you are doing, I am sure that you have en-countered some problems in your apostolate of going from door to door, motivating other Chris-tians to accept the Social Credit idea, and also to revive Christianity in their lives. In encountering these problems, I’d like to ask you not to despair, I’d like to ask you to get courage because Our Lord, at the Last Supper, said to His Apostles, and also to us: ‘Be of courage, I have conquered the world.’ So, victory is assured, even if, appar-ently, you are encoutering problems.

“On August 14 of this year, we celebrated the 100 years of evangelization in the neighboring diocese of Newala, south west of Lindi, in Tanza-nia... In his homily, the Cardinal said: ‘Consider the first Benedictine missionaries who came from Germany to Tanzania a hundred years ago. Many of them died young — at the age of 20, 40, be-cause of malaria. Other were killed in wars. Still, the missionaries never gave up. Instead of say-ing, ‘Now it is hopeless, let’s stop, because our missionaries are dying in missionary countries,’ they continued to send missionaries, and until today, we still have Benedictine Fathers, Broth-ers and Sisters in Tanzania. By this I mean, if you

Fantastic Congress(continued from page 5)

Juan David Gomez

At our Congress this year, we celebrated the50 years of full-time apostolate of Mr.

Gérard Migneault, who is still doing the door-to-door apostolate, with fantastic results.

visit one family, and you care chased there, for one reason or another, don’t give up! Go again to that very family, they may have changed their mind!”

To build the Kingdom of the ImmaculateWords of Mrs. Gilberte Cote-Mercier

“‘Michael’ is quite a work,” writes Mrs. Gilberte Cote-Mercier, “a work of apostolate through the press, through the visit to the homes, through conferences, pilgrimages. ‘Michael’ is the Pil-grims of Saint Michael, those consecrated slaves of Mary who work for the salvation of souls and to ‘build the Kingdom of the Immaculate’ in jus-tice, on the earth.

“The subjects of the Kingdom of the Immacu-late,” she says, “must pull away from the chains of the world, from the chains of comfort, from the chains of pleasures, from the chains of the body, from the chains of money, from the chains of sin. The Immaculate is She who is totally free from all that. She was free from the first instant of her existence on our earth where Satan reigns, the prince of the world.

“The Immaculate, she is the one who real-izes perfectly the plan of God over the human creature. She alone. She is the unique Immacu-late. To be the subjects of Her Kingdom, we must practice her virtues: humility, detachment, pur-ity. To win over other subjects to her, we must give the example of Her virtues, preach them, look for souls and bring them to this Queen. This is the apostolate.” — Gilberte Cote-Mercier

A message of Bishop Benjamin AlmonedaHere is the message that Fr. Norberto Eyule read at our Congress in Rougemont, Sept. 2,

2006, on behalf of Bishop Benjamin Almoneda, of the Diocese of Daet, in the Philippines:

A message to all my friends of the St. Mi-chael Pilgrims on the occasion of the Inter-national Congress in Rougemont and to all the delegates from all over the world: MABU-HAY, to all of you as I join all praying for its success and continued fruitfulness!!! If not for my weak and unstable physical health, I could have the immense joy of participating and sharing the many blessings God and the Blessed Mother will pour on the people gath-ered on September 2-4 and the week of study on the beautiful gift of the Social Credit pro-gram that is spreading throughout the world literally like fire. Thank God for His merciful love.

For more than one year, I have been pre-paring to come and join this Congress. How-

ever, my plans cannot be realized. But God’s plan cannot be stopped.

On September 2, the Diocese of Daet will launch the Lord’s Bank throughout the diocese. It will coincide with the 32nd Anniversary of the Diocese of Daet. Finally, after some years of study and prayer together with our priests and lay leaders, we think we are ready now to imple-ment God’s plan to witness the life of the Church of the poor that is patterned after the Poor of Yahweh referring to the “remnants” of God’s People who had nothing to depend on but God Himself.

Therefore, as you are gathered on September 2 for the International Congress, we will also gather here in Daet to accompany you and fullfill the ideals of Social Credit as a way to grow as an authentic Church. If Social Credit promises to lead us to realize a vision of practical Christian-ity, then we are on the road to actually achieve the authentic Church.

Our delegate in the person of the Rev. Fr. Norberto Eyule, the Social Action Director of our diocese, will present to the assembly our program implementing Social Credit. With his presen-tation, I hope that I will be present among you. May the Lord inspire all the participants coming from all over the world, and I pray that each one will taste the fullfilment of the Kingdom of God. PEACE BE WITH YOU!

BENJAMIN J. ALMONEDA, D.D.

Bishop of Daet, Philippines


Rolland Tessier, a full-time Pilgrim for the “Michael” Journal for almost 50 years, who was known for his ardent zeal by all the Pilgrims of St. Michael throughout Canada and other countries, died of a brain hemorrhage on August 31, 2006. He was 81.

One can say that he remained active on the battlefield until the very last days of his life. Two weeks before his death, he went to the Beauce area in Quebec to hold the monthly meeting. And a few days before our Congress, he had sent us a note saying that he would attend our Congress and the first days of our week of study.

He was then striken down by a cerebral hem-orrhage that left him almost totally paralyzed. He could neither speak nor open his eyes. He could only move his left hand; he moved his fingers one after the other to show us that he wanted us to pray the Rosary. So when we recited the prayers, he was moving the beads of the rosary with his fingers, although he looked unconscious. He died a few days after, on August 31.

The funeral Mass took place in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on September 2, at 10 a.m., just before the opening of our Congress in Rougemont, which he was supposed to attend. The circumstances al-lowed him to have an international funeral, with representatives of France, Poland, Austria, the Philippines, Tanzania, Switzerland, Madagascar, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, the United States and, of course, Canada. A priest from Poland and a priest from Tanzania concelebrated the Mass with the priest of St. John the Baptist’s Parish in Sher-brooke.

For the repose of their fellow apostle, the full-time Pilgrims of Rougemont paid for thirty Mass-es to be celebrated by Father Edmond Brouillard, Oblate of Mary Immaculate, the chaplain of the Pilgrims of St. Michael.

Rolland Tessier was born on August 12, 1925, then the feast day of Saint Claire of Assisi. He em-braced the spirituality of the patron saint of his birth. He cultivated the spirit of poverty.

He came across the Social Credit light during the Depression, when all families were lacking the necessities of life. He was in his prime, and was working as a mechanic in a stocking factory in Sherbrooke. Striken by the logic of Social Credit, he became its ardent promoter, devoting all his evenings and weekends to spread the good news of Social Credit. However, this was not enough for a noble soul like his.

In 1952, at the age of 27, he quit his job to join our Work full time. As soon as he arrived at our of-fice, he was given by our Directress, Mrs. Gilberte Côté-Mercier, a mission to be accomplished on the road; this mission he did accomplish indeed wonderfully, as well as all the other missions that

were to be entrusted to him afterwards: his first mission consisted in going to an unknown area, holding meetings and visiting families from door to door, and begging for his meals and nights’ lodgings, relying on Divine Providence, never sleeping in the same bed two days in a row, mov-ing from town to town every day, no matter the weather, and this, for months. He did similar mis-sions for several years.

When he came back to our office, it was only for a couple of days, to receive another mission, and leave for another area. It was like that for al-most fifty years. He never refused any mission. He was really an apostle of the road. He traveled all over Canada, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and in the French-speaking areas of New England.

He was a man we could trust, a man of duty and objectives. He was upstraight like a sword, and never afraid. He could face the most learned people, even though he did not himself attend school for many years, because he possessed a light they did not have: Social Credit. He ex-pressed himself very well in public. He was often appointed by the Directors to meet religious and civil authorities. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Meder-ic Tessier, were model parents; they raised him very well. They too joined our Movement, and put up our Pilgrims. Mr. Mederic Tessier also did the door-to-door apostolate work for many years.

Rolland Tessier was one of the seven Direc-tors of the “Louis Even Institute for Social Justice” and the “Pilgrims of St. Michael”.

He was deeply pious, and attended Holy Mass every day. He never missed the recitation of the Rosary and the Chaplet of St. Michael. He was punctual, always on time for work and prayers.

He had a special devotion to the Eternal Fath-er. He had pictures of the Eternal Father printed (see picture), painted according to a vision of the Eternal Father to St. Marguerite d’Youville, with a prayer on the back, which he distributed wher-ever he went. He entrusted all his activities to the Eternal Father.

Here is the last message he had printed on his mortuary card :

“I die confident! Yes, I die confident in the Mercy of the Eternal Father. I ask Him to close His eyes on my many imperfections.”

Rolland Tessier, a devoted and tenacious full-time PilgrimPassed away last August 31: fifty years of total self-dedication

He was buried on September 2, the first day of our Congress

So many sacrifices, so much dedication, so much love for God and neighbor can only bring, from our God who loves us with an infinite love, mercy and eternal bliss. This is our hope.

We entrust Mr. Rolland Tessier with the mis-sion of raising, among the young Social Credit-ers, a multitude of full-time Pilgrim apostles. Since he never refused to accomplish any mission we asked him on earth, we are sure he will accom-plish this one too, as we write this article on Oc-tober 1, the feast day of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, the patroness of missions.

Thérèse Tardif

Other anniversaries of full-time Pilgrims

Toronto monthly meetingsDecember 10, 2006, Feb. 11, 2007

Lithuanian Hall, 2573 Bloor St. W.

One block west Dundas Subway Station

Rosary at 2:00 p.m. – Meeting at 2:30 p.m.

Information: (416) 749-5297

Rougemont monthly meetingsHouse of the ImmaculateOctober 22, November 26

Simultaneous translation into English10:00 a.m. Opening. Rosary. Lectures 1:30 p.m. Rosary. Lectures 5:00 p.m. Mass celebrated by Oblate Fathers

Moving? If you are about to move, or have just moved,

it is very important to give your new address to your post office, so that it can inform us about it. Otherwise, Canada Post returns your “Michael” Journal to our office with the notation “moved, address unknown,” and charges 95 cents for each paper thus returned.

Diane Roy30 years

Alain Pilote25 years

Jacek Morawa10 years


Our regular readers know that every issue of this journal contains articles about the Social Credit financial proposals, which are more timely than ever to solve today’s economic problems. This Social Credit idea may raise many questions among our new readers, and one article is cer-tainly not enough to answer all these questions, or to give a clear understanding of the whole con-cept of Social Credit. Besides, most people simply do not have the time to read long books on the subject.

So, here is the solution: the Social Credit pro-posals explained in 10 lessons, each one being the logical continuation of the previous one. The first lesson begins with principles, and from there, we lay the foundations to have a full knowledge of all that Social Credit implies. Here is the list of the ten lessons:

Lesson 1: The end of economics — to make goods join those who need them;

Lesson 2: Poverty amidst plenty — The birth and death of money;

Lesson 3: Banks create money as a debt;

Lesson 4: The solution: debt-free money cre-ated by society;

Lesson 5: The chronic shortage of purchas-ing power — The dividend;

Lesson 6: Money and prices — The compen-sated discount;

Lesson 7: The history of banking control in the United States, and famous quotes on money;

Lesson 8: Social Credit is not a political party, but a sound and effective financial system;

Lessons 9 and 10: Social Credit and the social doctrine of the Church (which explains, among other things, the four basic principles of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and the study of Social Credit by nine theologians).

The first two lessons are pub-lished in this issue, and the eight others will published seri-ally, in our next issues. For those who cannot wait to read them all, we have made a 100-page booklet that contains the 10 lessons, that you can order from our office at $8 each (postage included) in you live in Canada, $11 for the U.S.A., and $13 for overseas. Good reading!

IntroductionSocial Credit is a doctrine, a series of princi-

ples expressed for the first time by Major and en-gineer C. H. Douglas in 1918. The implementation of these principles would make the social and eco-nomic organism effectively reach its proper end, which is the service of human needs. Social Credit would neither create the goods nor the needs, but it would eliminate any artificial obstacle between the two of them, between production and con-sumption, between the wheat in elevators and the bread on the table. The obstacle today — at least in the developed countries — is purely of finan-cial order, a money obstacle. Now, the financial system neither proceeds from God nor nature. Es-tablished by men, it can be adjusted to serve men and no more to cause them problems.

To this end, Social Credit presents concrete propositions. Though very simple, these propos-itions nevertheless imply a real revolution. Social Credit brings the vision of a new civilization, if by civilization one can mean man’s relationship with his fellow men and the conditions of life making easier for each one the blossoming of his person-ality.

Under a Social Credit system, we would no longer be struggling with problems that are strictly financial, which constantly plague public administrations, institutions, families, and which poison relationships between individuals. Finance would be nothing but an accounting system, ex-pressing in figures the relative values of goods and services, making easier the mobilization and coordination of the energies required for the dif-ferent levels of production towards the finished good, and distributing to ALL consumers the

The Social Credit proposalsexplained in 10 lessons

Louis Even C. H. Douglas

A study prepared by Alain Piloteon the occasion of the week of study

that followed the Congress of the Pilgrims of Saint Michaelin Rougemont, September 5-11, 2006

means to choose freely and individually what is suitable to them among the goods offered or im-mediately realizable.

For the first time in history, absolute economic security, without restrictive conditions, would be guaranteed to each and everyone. Material pov-erty would be a thing of the past. Material anxiety about tomorrow would disappear. Bread would be ensured to all, as long as there is enough wheat to make enough bread for all. Similarly for the other goods that are necessary for life.

Each citizen would be presented with this economic security as a birthright, as a member of the community, enjoying throughout one’s life an immense community capital, that has become a dominant factor of modern production. This cap-ital is made up of, among other things, the natural resources, which are a collective good; life in so-ciety, with the increment that ensues from it; the sum of the discoveries, inventions, technological progress, which are an ever-increasing heritage from generations.

This community capital, which is so product-ive, would bring each of its co-owners, each cit-izen, a periodical dividend, from the cradle to the grave. And seeing the volume of production at-tributable to the common capital, the dividend to each one ought to be at least sufficient to cover the basic necessities of life. This dividend would be given in addition to those who personally take part in production, without prejudice to wages, salaries, or other forms of reward.

An income thus attached to the individual, and no longer only attached to his status of em-ployee, would shield him from exploitation by other human beings. With the basic necessities of life guaranteed, a man can better resist being pushed about, and can better take up the career of his own choosing. Freed from urgent material worries, men could apply themselves to free ac-tivities, which are more creative than commanded work, and strive towards their own development by the exercise of human functions superior to the purely economic function. Getting the daily bread would no more be the absorbing occupa-tion of their lives.

Note: The text of the following 10 lessons is essentially taken from Louis Even’s writings: In This Age of Plenty (a 410-page book), What Do We Mean by Real Social Credit? (a 32-page bro-chure); and A Sound and Efficient Financial Sys-tem (a 32-page brochure).

The full text of these three books are available on our website (www.michaeljournal.org), and you can also order them from our office in Rouge-mont: $25 for the book “In This Age of Plenty”, and $3 for each of the two brochures. (All prices include shipping and postage.)

Lesson 1: The end of economics:To make goods join those who need them

Ends and meansWhen one talks about economics, one must

first distinguish between ends and means, and especially subordinate the means to the end, and not the end to the means.

The end is the goal aimed at, the objective pursued. The means is the processes, the meth-ods, the acts used to achieve the end.

I want to manufacture a table. My end is the manufacturing of the table. I get planks, I meas-ure, I saw, I plane, I adjust, I nail the wood: so many movements, actions, which are the means used to manufacture the table.

This seems elementary. But it often happens, in the running of public affairs, that one mistakes the means for the end, and one is all amazed when chaos results. For example, according to you, what is the end of economics:

A. To create jobs?B. To reach a favourable balance of trade?C. To distribute money to people?D. To produce the goods that people need?

The correct answer is D. Yet, for practically all politicians, the end of economics is to create jobs: yet, jobs are just a means to produce goods,



which are the end; today, thanks to the heritage of progress, goods can be produced with less and less human labour, which leaves people more free time to do other activities, like taking care of their families, or accomplish other social duties. Besides, what would be the point of continuing to produce something when human needs for this production are satisfied? This would be a useless waste of resources. And what about all those who cannot be employed in the production system: the handicapped, old people, children, housewives — should they starve to death? Not every human being is a producer, but all are consumers.

If you think in terms of reality, to have a fa-vourable balance of trade means that you export to other countries more products than you import from abroad, which means that you end up with less products in your countries, thus poorer in real wealth.

Many could have been tempted to answer C, for it seems obvious that money is necessary to live today, unless you produce all that you need yourself — which is the exception in today’s so-ciety, with the division of work where one person is the baker, another one a carpenter, etc., each one accomplishing a specific task and producing specific goods.

Money is a means to obtain what is produced by others. Mark you, it is a means, not an end! One does not eat money, clothe oneself with money: we use money to buy food and clothes. First, goods have to be produced, put on sale on the market: if there is no product to buy, any money would be useless. What would be the purpose of having a million dollars if you end up in the North Pole or in the Sahara Desert, with no products to buy? Com-pare this person with a man without a penny on an island that has all the water and food he needs to live comfortably. Who would be the richer? Again, as we will see further, money is not wealth, but a means to obtain real wealth: products.

Let us not confound ends and means. One could say the same thing about systems. The systems were invented and established to serve man, not man created to serve systems. Then if a system is harmful to the mass of men, do we have to let the multitude suffer for the system, or alter the system so that it will serve the multitude? An-other matter which will be the subject of a study in these lessons: since money was established to fa-cilitate production and distribution, does one have to limit production and distribution to money, or relate money to production and distribution?

Therefore one sees that the error of taking the ends for the means, the means for the ends, or of subordinating the ends to the means, is a stupid very widespread error which causes much disorder.

The end of economicsThe word economy is derived from two Greek

roots: Oikia, house; nomos, rule.

The economy is therefore about the good regulation of a house, of order in the use of the goods of the house.

We may define domestic economy as good management of domestic affairs, and political economy as good management in the affairs of the large communal home, the nation.

But why “good management”? When can the management of the affairs of the small or large home, the family or the nation, be called good? It can be so called when it reaches its end.

A thing is good when it attains the results for which it was instituted.

Man engages in different activities and pur-sues different ends, in different orders, in differ-ent domains.

There is, for example, man’s moral activities, which concern his progress towards his final end.

Cultural activities influence the development of his intellect, the ornamentation of his intellect, and the formation of his character.

In participating in the general well-being of society, man engages in social activities.

Economic activities deal with temporal wealth. In his economic activities, man seeks the satisfac-

tion of his temporal needs.

The goal, the end of economic activities, is therefore the use of earthly goods to satisfy man’s temporal needs. And economics reaches its end when earthly goods serve human needs.

The temporal needs of man are those which accompany him from the cradle to the grave. There are some which are essential, others which are not as vital.

Hunger, thirst, bad weather, weariness, illness, ignorance, create for man the need to eat, drink, clothe himself, find a shelter, warm himself, fresh-en himself, rest, to take care of his health, and to educate himself. These are all human needs.

Food, drink, clothing, shelter, wood, coal, wat-er, bed, remedies, the school teacher’s teaching books — these are all factors that must be present to fulfill these needs.

To join goods to needs — this is the goal, the end of economic life.

If it does this, economic life reaches its end. If it does not do this, or does it badly or incom-pletely, economic life fails its end or only reaches it imperfectly.

The goal is to join goods to needs, not only just to have them close together.

In straight terms, one could therefore say that economics is good, that it reaches its end, when it is sufficiently well-regulated for food to enter the hungry stomach, for clothes to cover the body, for shoes to cover naked feet, for a good fire to warm the house in winter, for the sick to receive the doc-tor’s visit, for teachers and students to meet.

The end of economics is not only to produce goods; these goods must be useful for people, answer their needs. Moreover, the end of goods is not to remain on shelves, but to be consumed by the people who need them. And for this, as we will see further, people need money to buy the goods that are on the shelves of stores.

Economics has an end of its own: to satisfy men’s needs. The fact of eating when one is hun-gry is not the final end of man; no, it is only a means to aim better towards his final end, which is to see God face to face in Heaven for eternity.

But if economics is only a means to the final end, if it is only an intermediate end in the general order, it is nevertheless a distinctive end for eco-nomics itself.

And when economics reaches this distinct-ive end, when it allows goods to join needs, it is perfect. Let us not ask more of it. But let us ask this of it. It is the goal of economics to achieve this perfect end.

Morality and economicsLet us not ask of economics to reach a moral

end, nor of morality to reach an economic end. This would be as disorderly as to attempt to go from Montreal to Vancouver in the transoceanic liner, or from New York to Le Havre, France, by railroad.

A starving man will not appease his hunger by reciting his Rosary, but by eating food. This is in order. It is the Creator who wanted it this way, and He turns from it only by departing from the estab-lished order through a miracle. He alone has the right to break this order. To satiate man’s hunger, it is economics therefore that must intervene, not morality.

Similarly, a man who has a sullied conscience cannot purify it by eating a good meal, or by con-suming copious libations. What he needs is the confessional. In that case, it is religion’s place to intervene; it is a moral activity, not an economic activity.

There is no doubt that morality must accom-pany all of man’s actions, even in the domain of economics. But morality does not replace eco-nomics. It guides in the choice of objectives, and it watches over the legitimacy of the means, but it does not carry out what economics must carry out.

So when economics does not reach its end, when things stay in the stores or are not pro-duced, and needs continue to be present in the homes, let us look for the cause in the economic order.

Let us blame of course those who disorgan-ize the economic order, or those who, having the mission to govern it, leave it in anarchy. By not fulfilling their duties, they are certainly morally re-sponsible, and fall under the sanction of ethics.

In effect, if both things are truly distinct, it hap-pens nevertheless that both concern the same man, and that if one is immolated, the other suf-fers from it. Man has the moral duty to make sure that the economic order, the social temporal or-der, reaches its proper end.

Also, although economics is responsible only for the satisfaction of man’s temporal needs, the importance of good economic practices has time and time again been stressed by those in charge of souls, because it normally takes a minimum of temporal goods to encourage the practice of vir-tue, as Saint Thomas Aquinas put it. We have a body and a soul, spiritual and material needs. As the saying goes, “words are wasted on a starving man”, and even the missionaries in poor countries know this; they have to feed the hungry before preaching to them. Man needs a minimum of goods to live his short pilgrimage on earth and save his soul, but a money shortage can cause terrible and inhuman situations.

This is what brought Pope Benedict XV to write, “It is in the economic field that the salva-tion of souls is at stake.”

And Pius XI: “It may be said with all truth that nowadays the conditions of social and economic life are such that vast multitudes of men can only with great difficulty pay attention to that one thing necessary, namely their eternal salvation.” (Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931.)

The social and very human end of the eco-nomic organism is summed up in this sentence of Quadragesimo Anno:

“Only will the economic and social organism be soundly established and attain its end when it secures for all and each those goods which the wealth and resources of nature, technical achievement, and the social organization of eco-nomic affairs can give.”

ALL and EACH must be secured with all the goods that nature and industry can provide.

The end of economics is therefore the satis-faction of ALL of the consumers’ needs. The end is consumption; production is only a means.

To make economics stop at production is to cripple it. Economics must not finance production only; it must also finance consumption. Produc-tion is the means, consumption is the end.

In an order where the end governs the means, it is man as a consumer who is in charge of all of the economy. And since every man is a consumer, it is every man who contributes to orienting the production and distribution of goods.

A really human economy is social, as we said;


Is the present financial systemthe exact reflection of reality?



it must satisfy ALL men. So ALL and EACH must be able to give their orders to the production of goods — at least to satisfy their basic needs, as long as production is in a position to respond to these orders.

The policy of a philosophySocial Credit is not a utopia, but is based on

a right understanding of reality, on the just rela-tionship between man and the society in which he lives. As Clifford Hugh Douglas said, Social Credit is the policy of a philosophy.

A policy is the action that we take, and it is based on a conception of reality or, in other words, a philosophy.

Social Credit proclaims a philosophy which had existed as long as men have lived in society, but which is terribly ignored in practice — more than ever in this day and age.

This philosophy, as old as society itself — therefore as old as the human race — is the phil-osophy of association. The social teaching of the Church would say: the common good.

The philosophy of association is therefore the joining together of all associates for the good of the associates, of each associate. Social Credit is the philosophy of association applied to the general society, the province, the nation. Society exists for the benefit of all the members of society, for each and every one.

It is for this reason that Social Credit is, by definition, the opposite of any monopoly: the economic monopoly, the political monopoly, the prestige monopoly, the brutal-force monopoly.

Let us define Social Credit as a system of so-ciety at the service of each and every one of its members, in which politics is at the service of each and every one of the citizens, and econom-ics is at the service of each and every one of the consumers.

Now let us define monopoly: the exploitation of the social organization at the service of a few privileged individuals, in which politics is at the service of clans called parties, and economics is at the service of a few financiers, of a few ambi-tious and unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

Too often, those who condemn monopolies stop at specified industrial monopolies: the elec-tric monopoly, the coal monopoly, the oil mon-opoly, the sugar monopoly, etc. They ignore the most pernicious of all monopolies in the field of economics: the monopoly of money and credit; the monopoly that changes a country’s progress into public debts; the monopoly which, by con-trolling the volume of money, regulates the hu-man beings’ standard of living, without any rela-tion to the realities of production and the needs of families.

The aim of Social Credit is to “bind back to reality” or “express in practical terms” in the cur-rent world, especially the world of politics and economics, those beliefs about the nature of God and man and the Universe which constitute the Christian Faith, as delivered to us from our fore-fathers, and NOT as altered and perverted to suit current politics or economics, which stem from a non-Christian source.

Men live in society, in a world submitted to God’s laws: the laws of nature (the physical laws of creation), and God’s moral law (the Ten Com-mandments). The acceptance and knowledge of these laws implies recognizing the consequences of violating them.

To accept Natural Law is to recognize that is inescapable reality, and that all people, as individ-uals or collectively in society, are subject to Nat-ural Law. Every event which occurs on the phys-ical plane are innumerable illustrations of the laws of the physical universe. For example, if a man jumps out of an airplane, he does not break the law of gravity… he just illustrates it, proves it. That observation is applicable to all natural laws.

These laws are beyond the abrogation of man

— they cannot be disobeyed — the sanctions which enforce them are irresistible.

The chains (agreement associations, man-made laws) which individuals in society have forged for themselves — are optional, whereas the Natural Law and its consequences are in-escapable.

For example, money is a man-made system, not a system created by God or nature: it can be changed by man. The equilibrium of the environ-ment, however, has been created by God, and can-not be broken without consequences. If we prod-uce goods without respecting the environment, if we pollute and waste the resources given to us by God, we have to suffer the consequences.

The social credit: the confidencethat binds society together

In his booklet What is Social Credit? , Geoffrey Dobbs wrote: “The social credit (without capital letters) is the name of something which exists in all societies but which never had a name before because it was taken for granted. We become aware of it only as we lose it.

“‘Credit’ is another word for ‘faith’ or ‘con-fidence’, so we can also call it the faith or confi-dence which binds any society together — the mutual trust or belief in each other without which fear is substituted for trust as the “cement” of soci-ety... Though no society can exist without some so-cial credit, it is at its maximum where the Christian religion is practized, and at its minimum where it is denied and derided.

“The social credit is thus a result, or prac-tical expression, of real Christianity in society, one of its most recognisable fruits; and it is the aim and policy of social crediters to increase it, and to strive to prevent its decrease. There are innumerable commonplace examples of it which we take for granted every day of our lives. How can we live in any sort of peace or comfort if we cannot trust our neighbours? How could we use the roads if we could not trust others to observe the rules of the road? (And what happens when they don’t!)

“What would be the use of growing anything in gardens, farms, or nurseries if other people would grab it? How could any economic activity go forward — whether producing, selling, or buy-ing — if people cannot, in general, rely upon hon-esty and fair dealing? And what happens when

the concept of the Christian marriage, and the Christian family and upbringing, is abandoned? We see, do we not? — that Christianity is some-thing real with desperately vital practical conse-quences, and by no means a mere set of opinions which are ‘optional’ for those to whom they hap-pen to appeal.”

One could add that without this respect of the social credit, of the laws ruling society, any life in society would become impossible, even though you put a police officer on every street corner, since you could not trust anybody.

Social discreditMr. Dobbs continues: “Just as there are so-

cial crediters, conscious and unconscious, trying to build up the social credit (the confidence that we can live together in society and benefit from it), so there are others — social discrediters — try-ing to destroy it and break it down, at present with all too much success. The conscious ones include the Communists and other revolutionaries, who quite openly seek to smash all the links of trust and confidence which enable our society to func-tion until the Day of the Revolution dawns... But it is the unconscious social discrediters who are responsible, in the West, for the present success of the conscious ones....

“Why do the shops and the manufacturers foist upon us so many shoddy, rubbishy, throw-away things, at outrageous prices, and trick us into buying them with clever packaging and ad-vertizing? Why are most repair services so scan-dalously slow, expensive and inefficient, and so many small services which made life easier now unobtainable? And above all, why do millions of decent working people of all classes take part in strikes deliberately designed to damage services to their fellow men? What on earth can make nor-mal decent people descend to this spiritual level? We all know what it is. There is one common fac-tor running through all this destructive and dis-creditable action: the compulsive need for more money to meet the ever-rising cost of living.

“So now at last I have come to the question of money, which is what some people think that Social Credit is all about; but it isn’t! Social Credit is an attempt to apply Christianity in so-cial affairs; but if money stands in the way, then we, and every Christian, must concern ourselves with the nature of money, and just why it stands in the way, as it surely does. There is a dire need for more people to look deeply into the oper-ation of our monetary system, though that is not everyone’s job. But when the consequences are so desperate, everyone can at least grasp the outline of what is wrong, and could be put right, which will enable them to act accordingly...”


The end of economics

Geoffrey Dobbs


Do goods exist? Do they exist in sufficient quantity to satisfy all of the consumers’ basic needs?

Are we short of anything in our country to satisfy the temporal needs of the citizens? Are we short of food for everybody to eat one’s fill ? Are we short of shoes, clothes? Can we not make as much as is required? Are we short of railroads and other means of transporta-tion? Are we short of wood or stones to build good houses for all families? Are we short of builders, manufacturers, or other workers? Are we short of machines?

No, we have all these things, in plenty. Never do the retailers complain that they cannot find enough goods to meet the de-mand. Grain elevators are bulging. Numer-ous are the able-bodied men waiting for work. Numerous also are the machines which are at a standstill.

Yet, a great many people suffer ! Goods are simply not finding their way into homes.

Of what use is it to tell people that their country is rich, that it exports a lot of goods, that it ranks third or fourth among the world’s exporting countries?

What goes out of the country does not go into the homes of the citizens. What sits idle in the stores does not appear on their tables.

A mother does not feed her children or pro-vide them with shoes and garments by going window-shopping, by reading the advertise-ments of goods in newspapers, by listening to the description of good products on the radio, or by listening to the sales talk of countless sales-men of all kinds.

What is lacking is the effective means of lay-ing hands on these goods. You cannot steal them. To get them, you must pay for them: you need money.

There are a lot of good things in our country, but many individuals and families who need these goods lack the right to have them, the permission to get them.

Is there anything lacking but money? What is lacking, apart from the purchasing pow-er to make the products go from stores to homes?

Mankind has gone through periods of food shortage; famines covered big coun-tries, and there was no appropriate means of transportation to bring to these countries the wealth from other sections of the planet. It is no longer the case today. There is an overabundance of everything. It is abun-dance — no longer scarcity — that creates the problem.

It is not at all necessary to go into de-tail to demonstrate this fact. There are thou-sands of cases of voluntary destruction on a large scale “to stabilize markets”, by making stocks disappear. Let us give just a few ex-amples:

The Montreal daily “La Presse” of June 7, 1986, reported the case of the potatoes in the Canadian Province of New Brunswick: “Last month… the Federal Government decided to throw away near-ly 100,000 tons of potatoes, after having shipped 2,500 dehydrated tons to two African countries. The general mobilization of farmers in New Bruns-wick, transport companies and volunteers saved nearly 100,000 kilos which were dispatched to soup kitchens and small poorhouses of New Brunswick, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. But 90,000 tons, the equivalent of a 10-pound (4.5 kg) potato bag for each Canadian, have been thrown to the garbage…

“The very same week this operation was tak-ing place, 6,000 barrels of 200 pounds (90 kg) of herings were dumped into the Miramichi River in New Brunswick.”

Abundance is not confined to Canada; it is the same case in Europe, as was reported in the news-

paper in October, 1986, under the title: “World’s starving not consulted”:

“Public outrage has erupted over the Euro-pean Community’s (EC) plan to burn or dump in the ocean the huge surplus mountains of butter, milk powder, beef and wheat piling up across EC

nations. A report from the EC’s Brussels headquar-ters by the European Commission recommends destroying the food, which is rotting and costly to store. US $300 million is said to be the possible saving if dairy products alone were destroyed. The EC already practizes periodic food dumping. Last year it dumped into the sea several hundred tons of deteriorating wheat. Eliminating half of present surpluses is proposed. It is believed that would mean burning 750,000 tons of butter and 500,000 tons of milk powder. Milk quotas haven’t succeeded in draining the EC’s milk lake.”

Why all this waste? Why don’t the products join the needs? It is because people have no money. Wealth, goods are laughing in your face, and you starve in front of lofts full to overflowing, if you have got no money. No money, no prod-ucts: humans starve to death, and products are thrown away.

Are we smarter than monkeys?Look at the cartoon above: Here is a grocer’s

store filled with good products in abundance; in front of this store, there is a penniless starving man. Good products are made to be consumed. The grocer displays them to sell them. The con-sumer would like to purchase them, but he lacks the tickets to purchase them: he has got no money. The result: the good products will not be consumed, and they will rot on the shelves. Yet, everybody would be happier if the situation was different — the grocer would be happy to sell, and the consumer would be happy to buy.

Why is it that something that would make everyone happy cannot take place among human beings?

Let us have a look at the monkeys. They see plenty of bananas on the banana trees. Since they need to eat bananas to live, they simply pick the bananas and eat them.

Monkeys never worked out complicated economic systems in their universities. In their heads of monkeys, they never examined the law of supply and demand, nor the difference be-tween socialism and neo-liberalism. They simply saw good things in front of them, and they were

smart enough to pick them in order not to starve.

But a monkey is a monkey, and a man is a man. A monkey has no mind, but a man can misuse his mind.

A monkey is led by its instinct, which does not mislead it. Man is led by his mind, which is often misled by pride. In such a case, man quibbles, uses dialect-ics, but forgets simple and pure reasoning based on common sense.

This foolish situation of a multitude of starving people amidst plenty of food is caused by the greed of those who base their power on the bondage of the masses. You can say also that this foolish situation is supported and maintained by people allegedly learned in economics, who lead minds to the most stupid con-

clusions, under the pretence of reasoning with science and wisdom.

This whole situation can also be summed up in the form of a joke, although the conclusion is very serious: A group of monkeys in the jungle were arguing whether men were more intelligent than monkeys. Some said “yes”; others said “no”. One of the monkeys said: “To be clear in my own mind, I will go to the city of the humans, and find out if they are really smarter than us.” All the monkeys agreed that it was a good idea. So the monkey went and saw a penniless man starving in front of a grocery store filled with bananas. The monkey came back to the jungle, and said to the other monkeys: “Don’t worry, men are not smart-er than us; they starve to death in front of bananas that rot on the shelves for lack of money.”

Conclusion: Let’s be smarter than the mon-keys, and let us devise a money system that will allow us to eat the bananas and all the other prod-ucts that are provided in plenty by God for all His children. This smart money system exists; it is

Social Credit.

Money and wealthWe have just shown that what is lack-

ing is not products, but money. This does not mean that money itself is wealth. Money is not an earthly good capable of satisfying a temporal need. As we said in the previous lesson, money is a means, the end is the products.

You cannot keep yourself alive by eat-ing money. To get dressed, you cannot sew together dollar bills to make a dress or a pair of stockings. You cannot rest by lying down on money. You cannot cure a sickness by putting money on the seat of the malady. You cannot educate yourself by crowning your head with money.

Money is not real wealth. Real wealth con-sists of all the useful things which satisfy human needs.

Bread, meat, fish, cotton, wood, coal, a car on a good road, a doctor visiting the sick, the know-ledge of a science — these are real wealth.

In our modern world, each individual does not produce all things. People must buy from one an-other. Money is the symbol or token that you get in return for a thing sold; it is the symbol that you must give in return for a thing that you want from another.

Wealth is the thing; money is the symbol of that thing. The symbol should reflect the thing.

If there are a lot of things for sale in a country, there must be a great deal of money to dispose of them. The more the people and the goods, the more money in circulation that is required, other-

Lesson 2: Poverty amidst plenty — The birth and death of money

Full warehouses, a calamity for the producers

while millions of human beings are starving to death



wise everything stops.

It is precisely this balance that is lacking today. We have at our disposal almost as great a quan-tity of goods as we could possibly wish, thanks to applied science, to new discoveries, and to the perfecting of machinery. We even have a lot of people without occupations, who represent a po-tential source of goods. We have loads of useless, even pernicious, occupations. We have activities of which the sole end is destruction.

Money was created for the purpose of keeping goods moving. Why, then, does it not find its way into the hands of the people in the same measure as the flow of goods from the production line?

Money begins somewhereEverything, except God,

has a beginning. Money is not God, therefore it has a begin-ning. Money begins some-where.

We know the origin of such useful commod-ities as food, clothing, shoes, books. Workers, ma-chines, plus the country’s natural resources, prod-uce the wealth, the goods we need and which we do not lack.

But then where does money begin, the money that we lack in order to buy the goods that are not lacking?

The first idea that we keep alive in our minds, without really realizing it, is that there is one fixed quantity of money, and that it cannot be changed; as if it was the sun, or the rain, or the weather. This idea is utterly wrong; if there is money, it is because it was made somewhere. If there is not more, it is because those who made it did not make more.

Another prevalent belief about the origin of money is that the Government makes it. This is also incorrect. The Government today does not create money, and complains continuously about not having any. If the Government were the source of money, it would not have sat around idly for ten years in front of the lack of money. (And for example, in Canada, there would not be a $500-billion national debt.) The Government takes and borrows, but it does not create money.

Now, we will explain where money begins and ends. Those who control the birth and death of money also regulate its volume. If they make much money and destroy little, there is more. If the destruction of money goes faster than its cre-ation, its quantity decreases.

Our standard of living, in a country where money is lacking, is not regulated by the volume of goods produced, but by the amount of money at our disposal to buy these goods. So those who control the volume of money, control our stan-dard of living. “Those who control money and credit have become the masters of our lives... No one dare breathe against their will.” (Pope Pius

XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno).

Two kinds of moneyMoney is whatever serves to pay, to buy;

whatever is accepted in exchange for goods and services.

The material substance of which money is made is of no importance. In the past, money has at times been made of shells, shark teeth, leather, wood, iron, silver, gold, copper, paper, etc.

There are at present two kinds of money in Canada: one we call pocket money, made of metal or paper; and the other we shall call book money, made of figures in a ledger. Pocket money is the least important; book money is the most import-ant (over 95%).

Book money is the bank account. Business operates through bank accounts. Whether pocket money circulates or not depends on the state of business. But business does not depend upon pocket money; it is kept going by the bank ac-counts of businessmen.

With a bank account, payments or purchases are made without using metal nor paper money. Buying is done only with figures.

Let us suppose I have a bank account of $40,000. I buy a car worth $10,000. I make my payment by writing a cheque. The car dealer en-dorses the cheque, and deposits it at his bank.

The banker then makes changes in two ac-counts: first, that of the car dealer, which he in-creases by $10,000; then mine, which he decreas-es by $10,000. The car dealer had $500,000 — he now has $510,000 written in his bank account. I had $40,000 in mine — my bank account now shows $30,000.

Paper money did not move in the country be-cause of this deal. I simply gave some figures to the car dealer. I paid with figures.

More than nine-tenths of all business is done this way. It is book money, the money made of figures, which is modern money; it is the most abundant money; its volume is ten times that of paper and

metal money. It is a superior type of money, since it gives wings to the other. It is the safest kind of money, the one that no one can steal.

Savings and borrowingBook money, like the other type of money, has

a beginning. Since book money is a bank account, it comes into existence when a bank account is opened without money decreasing anywhere, neither in another bank account nor in anyone’s pocket.

The amount in a bank account can be in-creased in two ways: by saving and by borrow-ing. There are other ways, but they can be classi-fied under borrowing.

The savings account is a transformation of

money. I bring along some pocket money to the banker; he increases my account by this amount. I no longer have that pocket money; I have book money at my disposal. I can get back pocket money by decreasing the amount of book money in my account. It is a simple transformation of money.

But since we are trying to find out how money comes into existence, the savings account, being a simple transformation of money, is of no interest to us here.

Money begins in the banksThe borrowing (or loan) account is the ac-

count lent by the banker to a borrower. Let us suppose I am a businessman. I want to set up a new factory. All I need is money. I go to a bank and borrow $100,000 under security. The banker makes me sign a promise to pay back the amount with interest. Then he lends me the $100,000.

Is he going to hand me the $100,000 in paper money? I do not want it. First, it is too risky. Furthermore, I am a businessman who buys things at different and widely far-flung places, through the medium of cheques. What I want is a bank ac-count of $100,000 which will make it easier for me to carry on business.

The banker will therefore lend me an ac-count of $100,000. He will credit my account with $100,000, just as if I had brought that amount to the bank. But I did not bring it; I came to get it.

Is it a savings account, set up by me? No, it is a borrowing account made by the banker himself, for me.

Money creatorsThis account of

$100,000 was made, not by me, but by the banker. How did he make it? Did the amount of money in the bank decrease when the banker lent me $100,000? Well, let us ask the banker:

— Mr. Banker, have you any less money in your vault after having lent me $100,000?

— I haven’t gone into my vault.

— Have other people’s accounts been re-duced?

— They remain exactly as they were.

— Then what was decreased in the bank?

— Nothing was decreased.

— Yet my account has been increased. From where did the money you lent me come?

— It didn’t come from anywhere.

— Where was it when I came into the bank?

— It didn’t exist.

— And now that it is in my account, it exists. So we can say that it was created.

— Certainly.

— Who created it, and how?

— I did, with my pen and a drop of ink when I inscribed $100,000 to your credit, at your re-quest.

— Then you create money?

— The banks create book money, the money of figures. That’s the modern money that puts into circulation the other type of money by keeping business on the move.

The banker manufactures money, ledger money, when he lends accounts to borrowers, individuals, or governments. When I leave the bank, there will exist in this country a new source of cheques, one that did not exist before. The total amount of all accounts in the country was increased by $100,000. With this new money, I will pay the workers, buy materials and machinery — in short, build my new factory. Who, then, creates money? — The bankers!

(See Lesson 3 in our next issue.)

The birth of money(continued from page 11)

Examples of money in the pastCowrie shells were among the earliest forms of currency, and are

known to have been used as currency in China as early as 3,500 years ago. In some parts of the world, they were used until the early 1900s. Cowries were accepted as currency by many peoples in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Islands at different points in time. They travelled great distances as they passed from hand to hand. Cowries were so important in China that they have inspired the shape of the Chinese character that means “to buy”. Cowries worked well as currency be-

cause they were portable, easy to count, durable, and almost impossible to counterfeit.

Playing-card money was used as currency from 1685 to 1719 in New France, present-day Quebec and Eastern Canada. The Intendant, Jacques de Meulles, was the head of government in New France. In 1685, he had run out of gold and silver coins to pay his employees, mostly soldiers. Faced with this problem, he thought up a creative solution. He wrote “promises to pay” on the backs of playing cards and signed them. He then ordered everyone in New France to accept these emergency notes in payment.

Source: http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/learning/digit.php


by Michael Gleghorn

A tale of two hypothesesIt seems that almost everyone is interested in

reports of UFOs and alien encounters. But how should these reports be understood? Where do these “unidentified flying objects” come from and what are they? Are intelligent beings visiting us from another planet or some other dimension? Or are UFO reports merely a collection of hoaxes, hal-lucinations, and misidentified phenomena? Can all UFO reports be adequately explained, or are there some that seem to defy all nat-ural explanations? These are just a few of the questions we want to consider in this article.

First, however, it’s essential to note that most UFOs (unidentified flying objects) be-come IFOs (identified flying objects). John Spencer, a British UFO researcher, estimates that as many as 95 percent of received UFO reports “are turned into IFOs and explained satisfactorily.” (1) For example, the report might be found to have been a clever prank or to have some natural explanation. Plan-ets, comets, military aircraft, and rockets (among many others) have all been mistaken for UFOs. But even if 99 percent of UFO re-ports could be satisfactorily explained, there would still be thousands of cases that stub-bornly resist all natural explanations. These are called residual UFO reports.

If residual UFOs are not hoaxes, hallu-cinations, or some natural or man-made phenom-ena, then what are they? Most UFO researchers hold either to the extraterrestrial hypothesis or the interdimensional hypothesis. The extraterrestrial hypothesis holds that technologically advanced, interplanetary space travelers are indeed visiting our planet from somewhere else in the cosmos. Stanton Friedman, a representative of this view, states clearly, “The evidence is overwhelming that some UFOs are alien spacecraft.” (2)

The interdimensional hypothesis agrees “that some UFOs are real phenomena that may exhibit physical... effects.” (3) However, unlike the extra-terrestrial hypothesis, this view does not believe that UFOs and alien beings come from some-where else in our physical universe. So where do they come from? Some suggest that they come from some other universe of space and time. But others believe that they come from some other dimension entirely, perhaps a spiritual realm. (4)

How might we tell which, if either, of these two hypotheses is correct? Astronomer and Christian apologist Dr. Hugh Ross suggests that we employ the scientific approach known as the “process of elimination.” He writes, “Mechanics use it to find out why the car won’t start. Doctors use it to find out why the stomach hurts. Detectives use it to find out who stole the cash. This process can also be used to discover what could, or could not, pos-sibly give rise to UFO phenomena.” (5)

So what happens if we apply this process to the extraterrestrial hypothesis? Although quite popular here in America, there are some serious scientific objections to this viewpoint.

The extraterrestrial hypothesisIn the first place, it is highly improbable that

there is another planet in our cosmos capable of supporting physical life. Dr. Ross has calculated the probability of such a planet existing by natural processes alone as less than 1 in 10174. You actual-ly have “a much higher probability of being killed in the next second by a failure in the second law of thermodynamics (about one chance in 1080).” (6) Thus, apart from the supernatural creation of another suitable place for life, our planet is almost certainly unique in its capacity to support complex biological organisms. (See the Probe article “Are We Alone in the Universe?”) This alone makes the extraterrestrial hypothesis extremely improbable. But it gets even worse!

Suppose (against all statistical probability)

that there is a planet with intelligent life else-where in the universe. What is the likelihood that such creatures are visiting our planet? And what sort of difficulties would they face in doing so?

Probably the greatest challenge to interstel-lar space travel is simply the immense size of the universe. One group of scientists, assuming that any alien spacecraft would likely maintain com-munication with either the home planet or with other members of their traveling party, “scanned all 202 of the roughly solar-type stars within 155 light-years of Earth. Not one intelligible signal was

detected anywhere within the vicinity of these stars.” (7) This implies that, at a minimum, E.T. would have to travel 155 light-years just to reach earth. Unfortunately, numerous galactic hazards would prevent traveling here in a straight line. Avoiding these deadly hazards would increase the minimum travel distance to approximately 230 light-years. (8)

Dr. Ross estimates that “any reasonably-sized spacecraft transporting intelligent physical beings can travel at velocities no greater than about 1 percent” of light-speed. (9) Although this is nearly 7 million miles per hour, it would still take about twenty-three thousand years to travel the 230 light-years to earth! Of course, a lot can go wrong in twenty-three thousand years. The aliens might run out of food or fuel. Their spacecraft might be damaged beyond repair by space debris. They might be destroyed by a contagious epidemic. The mind reels at the overwhelming improbability of successfully completing such a multi-genera-tional mission.

In light of these facts, it doesn’t appear that the extraterrestrial hypothesis can reasonably survive the process of elimination. Does the interdimensional hypothesis fare any better? A growing number of serious UFO researchers be-lieve it can. Let’s take a look.

The interdimensional hypothesisThe interdimensional hypothesis holds that re-

sidual UFOs “enter the physical dimensions of the universe from ‘outside’ the four familiar dimensions of length, height, width, and time.” (10) Where do they come from? Some believe that they come from another physical universe of space and time. But this does not seem possible. General relativity forbids “the space-time dimensions of any other hypothetically existing universe” from overlapping with our own. (11) For this reason, many research-ers believe that residual UFOs must come from some other dimension entirely, perhaps even a spiritual realm.

What evidence can be offered for such a bold hypothesis? Many point to the strange behavior of residual UFOs themselves. Hugh Ross con-tends that residual UFOs “must be nonphysical because they disobey firmly established physical laws.” (12) Among the many examples that he of-fers in support of this statement, consider the fol-lowing: (13)

1. Residual UFOs generate no sonic booms

when they break the sound barrier, nor do they show any evidence of meeting with air resistance.

2. They make impossibly sharp turns and sudden stops.

3. They send no detectable electromagnetic signals.

If residual UFOs are real (as credible testi-mony from astronomers, meteorologists, pilots, and others suggests), then their ability to defy the well-known and well-tested laws of physics is a strong indication, in the minds of many research-ers, that they must be nonphysical in nature. Additionally, many researchers argue that resid-ual UFOs also manifest characteristics consistent with intelligence.

For example, “relative to the number of potential observers, ten times as many sight-ings occur at 3:00 A.M (a time when few people are out) as at either 6:00 A.M. or 8:00 P.M. (times when many people are outside in the dark).” (14) If residual UFOs were simply random events, then we would expect more sightings when there are more potential ob-servers. The fact that these events are non-random may suggest some sort of intelli-gence behind them. This is further supported by the fact that some people are more likely to see a residual UFO than others. Numer-ous researchers have observed a correlation between an individual’s involvement with the occult and their likelihood of having a residual UFO encounter. This may also sug-gest some kind of intelligence behind these phenomena.

Finally, residual UFOs not only appear to be nonphysical and intelligent, they some-times seem malevolent as well. Many of those claiming to have had a residual UFO

encounter have suffered emotional, psycho-logical, and/or physical injury. A few people have even died after such encounters. In light of these strange characteristics, many researchers have reached similar conclusions about the possible source of these phenomena.

The occult connectionMany serious UFO investigators have no-

ticed a striking similarity between some of the aliens described in UFO reports and the demonic spirits described in the Bible. Although it may not be possible to know whether some aliens are actually demons (and I certainly do not claim to know this myself), the well-documented con-nection between UFO phenomena and the occult cannot be denied.

In 1969 Lynn Catoe served as the senior bibli-ographer of a publication on UFOs researched by the Library of Congress for the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. After a two-year in-vestigation, in which she surveyed thousands of documents, she drew explicit attention to the link between UFOs and the occult. She wrote, “A large part of the available UFO literature... deals with subjects like mental telepathy, automatic writing and invisible entities... poltergeist manifestations and ‘possession.’ Many... UFO reports... recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to de-monic possession and psychic phenomena.” (15) Veteran UFO researcher John Keel agrees. After surveying the literature on demonology he wrote, “The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar if not entirely identical to the UFO phenomenon itself.” (16) The bizarre claim of alien abduction may lend some credibility to these remarks.

Many (though not all) of those who report an abduction experience describe the aliens as de-ceptive and hostile. Whitley Strieber, whose occult involvement preceded the writing of both Com-munion and Transformation, at times explicitly referred to his alien visitors as “demons.” For ex-ample, in Transformation he described his emo-tional reaction to the aliens with these words: “I felt an absolutely indescribable sense of menace. It was hell on earth to be there, and yet I couldn’t move, couldn’t cry out, couldn’t get away... What-ever was there seemed so monstrously ugly, so filthy and dark and sinister. Of course they were

UFOs and alien beings



demons. They had to be. And they were here and I couldn’t get away.” (17)

Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that abduc-tion is often physically and emotionally painful, Mr. Strieber tends to believe that its purpose is ultimately benevolent. When integrated correctly, the abduction experience can provide a catalyst for spiritual growth and development. Still, he candidly admits that he is really not sure pre-cisely who or what these beings actually are, and he continues to warn that many of them are in-deed hostile and malevolent. (18) In light of this, one can’t help wondering about the experiences related in Mr. Strieber’s books. If his encounters with aliens were not merely hallucinatory, or due to some mental disorder, isn’t it at least possible that his sinister visitors really were demons? As noted above, many UFO investigators would in-deed consider this (or something very much like it) a genuine possibility.

Another Gospel?In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul

delivered a stirring indictment against every gos-pel but that of Christ. “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed” (1:8-9). Evidently, the purity of the Gospel was deeply important to Paul.

In today’s pluralistic society a variety of gos-pels are being preached. And among the great throng of voices clamoring for our attention are many UFO cults. Since the 1950s a number of these cults have arisen, often around a charis-matic leader who claims to be in regular contact with otherworldly beings. Interestingly, unlike the abduction phenomenon, most contactees do not claim to have ever seen the aliens with whom they communicate. Rather, they claim that the aliens communicate with them psychically or telepathic-ally. The contactee is simply a channel, or med-ium, through whom the aliens communicate their messages to humankind. This method of contact is rather intriguing for those who favor the interdi-mensional hypothesis. As John Saliba observes, “Many contactees... write about UFOs and space beings as if these were psychic phenomena, be-longing to a different time/space dimension that lies beyond the scope... of modern science.” (19)

So what sort of messages do the aliens al-legedly communicate to contactees? Often they want to help guide us to the next stage of our spiritual evolution or give us advice that will help us avoid some global catastrophe. Strangely, however, many of them also want to deny or dis-tort traditional doctrines of biblical Christianity. Oftentimes these denials and distortions concern the doctrine of Christ. For example, the Aether-ius Society “views Jesus Christ as an advanced alien being... who communicates through a chan-nel and travels to Earth in a flying saucer to pro-tect Earth from evil forces.” (20) As a general rule, “UFO religions... reject orthodox Christology (Jesus’ identity as both God and man) and thus reject Jesus Christ as the... Creator and... Savior of humankind.” (21)

A deficient Christology, combined with an ac-ceptance of biblically forbidden occult practices like mediumistic channeling (see Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:10-12; etc.), make many UFO cults spiritually dangerous. By preaching a false gospel, they have (perhaps unwittingly) placed themselves under a divine curse. By embracing occult practices, they have opened the door to potential demonic attack and deception. Nevertheless, there is hope for those involved with these cults. There is even hope for those tormented by hostile beings claiming to be aliens. The Bible tells us that through His work on the Cross, Jesus disarmed the demonic rulers and authorities (Col. 2:15). What’s more, for those who flee to Him for refuge, He makes available the “full armor of God,” that they might “stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). Re-gardless of who or what these alien beings might be, no one need live in fear of them. If Jesus has triumphed over the realm of evil demonic spirits, then certainly no alien can stand against Him. Let

those who live in fear turn to Jesus, for He offers rest to all who are weary and heavy-laden (Matt. 11:28).

Notes1. John Spencer, ed., The UFO Encyclopedia (New York:

Avon Books, 1991), s.v. “identified flying objects (IFOs),” cited in Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark, Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men (Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress, 2002), 25.

2. Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 2d ed., vol. 1 (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998), s.v. “Friedman, Stanton Terry,” cited in Ross, et al., Lights in the Sky, 31.

3. Ross, et al., 32. 4. Ibid., 109. 5. Ibid., 34. 6. Ibid., 39.

7. Ibid., 57. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid., 59. 10. Ibid., 109.

11. Ibid. 12. Ibid., 69. 13. Ibid., 69-70. 14. Ibid., 116.

15. Lynn Catoe, UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotat-ed Bibliography (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. iv (prepared under Air Force Office of Scientif-

ic Research Project Order 67-0002 and 68-0003), cited in John Ankerberg and John Weldon, The Facts on UFO’s and Other Supernatural Phenomena (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1992), 17.

16. John A. Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (New York: Putnam’s, 1970), p. 215; cited in Ankerberg and Weldon, The Facts on UFO’s, 18.

17. Whitley Strieber, Transformation: The Breakthrough (New York: Morrow, 1988), p. 181; cited in Ankerberg and Wel-don, The Facts on UFO’s, 23.

18. For example, his recent online journal entry, “How We Can Protect Ourselves,” (Aug. 28, 2003) at www.unknown-country.com/journal/.

19. John A. Saliba, “Religious Dimensions of UFO Phenom-ena,” in The Gods Have Landed, ed. James R. Lewis (New York: State University of New York Press, 1995), p. 25; cited in Ross, et al., Lights in the Sky, 145.

20. Ross, et al., Lights in the Sky, 150. 21. Ibid., 164.

©2003-2006 Probe Ministries


What is Islam? Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the at-

tention of Westerners has been drawn to Islam, since we are being told that Osama Bin Laden committed these terrorist attacks in the name of Islamic fundamentalism. While it is true that the vast majority of Moslems condemn violence and these terrorist attacks, a minority of extremist Moslems claim that it is “Allah” who asked them to wage a holy war against “the infidel”.

What is the real face of Islam? Does it preach peace or war? Even if the word “Islam” itself can be defined as “to make peace”, “to sur-render”, the truth is that there is a dark side of Islam which, although only put into practice by a small number of extremists, indeed advocates violence. Over the centuries, Muslims have en-gaged in tremendous wars with Christians and Jews, and Christians are being persecuted and killed by Moslems in many countries today, like Indonesia and Sudan. Is there a way Christians and Moslems can co-exist together in peace?

Mohammed Mohammed, the founder of the Islam faith,

was born in Mecca, Arabia, in 575. An orphan raised by an uncle, he served as a camel caravan leader until the age of 25, when he got married to a wealthy woman who was 15 years older than him, and he became the manager of her fortune. Like the other Arabs of his country, Mohammed did not profess any particular religious creed. Over 300 gods were worshipped in Mecca, among them Allah, the god of the moon. Mohammed liked to talk to strangers, be they Jews or heretical Christians, and used to read their books.

Mohammed then invented a religion of his own – a mixture of his readings – and present-ed it to his wife and some of his relatives. Only one God, Allah (that is why Islam is represented by the crescent), but several prophets, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the last and greatest prophet of all, himself. (According to him, Jesus was not God, but only a prophet, and did not die on the Cross, but was replaced by another person at the last moment.)

The people of Mecca did not accept his reli-gion, and he was forced to flee to Medina in 622, year one of the Moslem faith. There he won over a majority of people to his new religion, and came back to the “holy city” of Mecca with the title of “the great prophet of Allah”. He died there in 632, leaving to his disciples the Koran (the holy book of the Moslems, divided into surahs), which prom-ised a paradise of eternal sensual pleasures to all those who faithfully accomplished the few prac-tices indicated in the Koran, especially to those who would spread Islam by all means... including the sword.

Historians agree to say that there is a big difference between Mohammed’s personality in Mecca and his personality after his migration to Medina. In Mecca, Mohammed was struggling to be accepted, so he tried to appeal to Christians and Jews as well, his teachings condemning vio-lence, injustice, and neglect of the poor. How-ever, when he moved to Medina, and his follow-

ers grew in strength and number, he no longer needed to please people of other faiths, and be-came a relentless warrior intent on spreading his religion by the sword.

Our Lady of Fatima, in PortugalIn Surah 73:10, God tells Mohammed to be pa-

tient with his opponents, but later in Surah 2:191, God orders him to kill them. In Surah 2:256, God tells Mohammed not to impose Islam by force (“Let there be no compulsion in religion”); while in verse 193 God tells him to kill whoever rejects Islam. In Surah 29:46, God tells him to speak nice-ly to people of the Book (Christians and Jews), but in Surah 9:29 God tells him to fight them. To justify this sudden change in the Koran’s mood, from peaceful to militant, conciliatory to confron-tational, Mohammed claimed that it was God who ordered it. It was God who abrogated the peaceful verses, and replaced them by harsh ones.

To conquer countries with the sword became the password. The Moslems set out in 634 to conquer the world. Within a year, they had cap-tured Syria and Damascus. Three years later, they captured Jerusalem. By 643, they had conquered

Mary and the Moslems



a territory half the size of Europe. In 711, they crossed the strait of Gibraltar, and rapidly con-quered Spain and Portugal, and remained there for seven centuries. In 1571, at the naval Battle of Lepanto, the invasion of Europe by the Moslems was definitely stopped.

It is extremely difficult for Christian mission-aries to convert Moslems, because they think that their religion is the accomplishment of Christi-anity, because it came after... and of course also because the Koran teaches that any Moslem who converts to another faith must be killed. So those who do convert do it at the risk of their lives, and most of the time, must flee to Western countries.

In 1952, Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen devoted a chapter in his book, “The World’s First Love”, entitled “Mary and the Moslems”. In it, he wrote that it is his firm belief that Moslems will eventually be converted to Christianity, thanks to the devotion they already have to the Virgin Mary. In fact, God the Father seems to have a special plan to draw the Moslems to Jesus through His Mother, Mary.

Bishop Sheen wrote: “In the Koran, the Vir-gin Mary is mentioned thirty times. It believes in Her Immaculate Conception, and also, in Her Virgin Birth. It has also verses on the Annuncia-tion, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and say-ing: ‘Oh, Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.’ Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daugh-ter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: ‘Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary.’ In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say, ‘I surpass all the women, except Mary.’

“This brings us to our second point: name-ly, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century should have revealed Herself in the significant little village of Fatima, Portugal, so that to all future generations she would be known as ‘Our Lady of Fatima.’ Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as ‘Our Lady of Fatima’ as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much re-spect, will one day accept her divine Son too. . . I believe the Blessed Virgin chose to be known by the name Fatima because she also came for the conversion of Islam, without which there cannot be an era of peace for mankind.

“Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy (the Count of Ourem) fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the Catholic Faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.”

by Father Ladis J. Cizik

Here is what Father Ladis J. Cizik, then Blue Army National Executive Director and editor of the excellent Marian periodical SOUL Magazine, wrote in his Sept.-Oct. 2001 issue: “It is a fact that Moslems from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to the Shrine of Fatima in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combina-tion of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Moslems.” (To subscribe to SOUL Magazine, send a money order in U.S. currency (1 year, U.S.A.: $7.95; Canada: $10.95; overseas: $11.95) to: Attn: Soul Subscription, Blue Army, P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882. Toll-free number: 866-

523-1917. Website: www.bluearmy.com)

This same issue of SOUL reports another proof of the devotion of the Moslems to Our Lady: “When the Moslems invaded the Holy Land in the seventh century, they destroyed every Chris-tian church, with one remarkable exception: the Basilica of St. Anne in Jerusalem, because it was believed to be built over the spot where the Blessed Virgin Mary was born. Their great reve-rence to Our Lady precluded the Moslems from destroying Her birthplace.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico“As the Moslems swept through Spain in the

8th century, a great religious treasure was buried for safe-keeping in the earth, high in the Estrema-dura Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of Seville. After the overthrow of Moor-ish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326, subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble shepherd by the name of Gil. Our La-dy’s very special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan Monastery next to the ‘Wolf River.’

“The Moslems, during their Spanish occupa-tion, had actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf River is ‘Guadalupe’ (Guada = Ri-ver; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of ‘Our Lady of Gu-adalupe.’”

Mexico “In the fullness of time, we can be sure that

Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the ‘new world’ from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone ‘serpent god’ that demanded human sacrifice. (Between 20,000 and 50,000 were sa-crificed a year. The rituals included cannibalism of the victims’ limbs. The early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children in Mexico were sacrificed.)

“However, with God all things are possible. Our Lady appeared to a humble Aztec Indian con-vert by the name of Juan Diego in 1531. When asked her name by Juan Diego, at the request of the local bishop, Our Lady’s response, in the Aztec language, included the words ‘te coatlaxo-

Mary and the Moslems(continued from page 14)

peuh’ (pronounced: ‘te quatlasupe’) and meant “one who crushes the head of the stone ser-pent.’

“To Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs, this revelation had great meaning, coupled with the miraculous image of Our Lady standing on top of a ‘crescent,’ the symbol of this evil serpent god. A tidal wave of conversions to Catholicism ensued. However, Bishop Zumarraga, who was from Spain, made what was no doubt a ‘heavenly mistake’ that one day may lead to the mass con-version of Moslems. To the Bishop’s Spanish ears, Our Lady’s Aztec name of ‘Te Quatlasupe’ soun-ded just like the name of the revered Madonna from Spain with the Islamic name, ‘Guadalupe.’ Hence, the bishop named the Mexican Madonna ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe.’ It is interesting that the ‘crescent’ is also the symbol for Islam.

Battle of Lepanto “On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the

mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between ‘oared’ ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material dis-advantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory.

“We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radi-ance: ‘The Christian fleet is victorious!’ and shed tears of thanksgiving to God. What you may not know is that one of three admirals commanding the Catholic forces at Lepanto was Andrea Doria. He carried a small copy of Mexico’s Our Lady of Guadalupe into battle. This image is now enshri-ned in the Church of San Stefano in Aveto, Italy.

“At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world. Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Rus-sia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!”

Father Ladis J. Cizik

Pasteur and the RosaryOver a hundred

years ago, a university student found himself seated in a train next to a man who was praying the Rosary, moving the beads in his fingers.

“Sir, do you still be-lieve in such outdated things?” asked the stu-dent of the old man.

“Yes, I do. Do you not?” asked the man.

The student burst out laughing and said, “I do not believe in such silly things. Take my advice and learn what science has to say about it.”

“Science? I do not understand this sci-ence! Perhaps you can explain it to me,” the man said humbly with some tears in his eyes.

The student saw that the man was deeply moved. “Please give me your ad-dress and I will send you some literature about it,” the student said.

The man fumbled in the inside pocket of his coat and gave the boy his card. On glancing at it, the student bowed his head in silence. The card read: ”Louis Pasteur, Director of the Institute of Scientific Re-search, Paris.”

Louis Pasteur


During the Mass held on October 15, 2006, in St. Peter’s Square, which was attended by around 30,000 people (including some 10,000 Mexicans), Pope Benedict XVI canonized four Blesseds. Among those canonized is St. Rafael Guízar Va-lencia (1878-1938), a Bishop of Veracruz, Mexico, who is the first Bishop-saint born in Latin Amer-ica, known as the “Bishop of the Poor”.

His lifeRafael Guízar Valencia, one of the heroes of

the Mexican persecution of Catholicism in the 1930s, was born in Cotija, State of Michoacan, in the diocese of Zamora on April 26, 1878. His par-ents, Prudencio and Natividad, were wealthy land-owners, but also devout Christians who gave their 11 children a careful religious upbringing. One of Rafael’s brothers also became a Bishop.

Blessed Rafael lost his mother at the age of nine. He spent his early years studying in a re-ligious school and then spent time with Jesuit priests. His calling in life was to enter the priest-hood thereby dedicating his life in the name of God. In 1891, he entered the minor seminary in Cotija and, then in 1896, he entered the major seminary in Zamora. In June of 1901, at the age of 23, he was ordained to the priesthood.

An evangelist at heart, he began to move about Mexico giving popular missions. Because of this special talent, he was appointed an “apos-tolic missionary” in 1905, and named spiritual dir-ector in the major seminary of Zamora where he himself had been trained. Here he communicated to the seminarians a deep love of the Holy Eucha-rist, a tender devotion to Our Lady, and his own zealous missionary spirit.

In addition to conducting missions in sev-eral Mexican states, Padre Rafael also founded a school for poor girls, using his own funds. He es-tablished two colleges for boys, hoping that they would serve as “feeders” to the Congregation of Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope, a religious community that he set up in 1903.

All these efforts were thwarted, however, from 1911 on, by the outbreak of persecution against the Church. His missionary congregation was wiped out, and even his public career as a missionary preacher was officially cancelled.

Unofficially, of course, Fr. Guízar continued his work. In 1911, in Mexico City, to counteract the persecution of the Catholic Church, he set up a press and launched a Catholic periodical, although this, too, was quickly shut down by the revolution-aries. Undaunted, Guizar accompanied the armies of the revolution in disguise — now as a hardware peddler, now as a homeopathic physician, now as an accordion player. He ministered to the wound-ed and preached whenever opportunity offered. Sometimes he returned from his good works with bullet holes in his hat and clothing.

The revolutionists were increasingly infuriated by this missionary’s “guerrilla” ministry. Several times they condemned him to death. He escaped that fate, but became so notorious that he finally decided it was wiser to leave the country; so in 1916, after a brief stay in the United States, he went to Guatemala. There he spent a year of mis-sionary work under an assumed name. From 1917 to 1919, he lived in Cuba, where he preached a total of 153 parish missions.

Bishop of VeracruzFather Guízar was preaching in Havana on

August 1, 1919, when he was informed that he had been named Bishop of Veracruz, Mexico. Un-willing at first to accept the task, he fled to Co-lombia, South America, to give missions there. Eventually, however, he returned submissively to Havana, and there he was ordained a Bishop, on November 30. He arrived in Veracruz on January 4, 1920, and took possession of his cathedral five days later. At almost the same moment, a terrible earthquake devastated the diocesan area. Bishop

Guízar immediately added the work of relief to that of re-evangelizing his new flock.

He dedicated his first two years to visiting per-sonally the vast territory of his diocese. He con-ducted missions, and later assisted those affected by a terrible earthquake, which caused mass de-struction and death among the poor of Veracruz. His work included preaching in parish churches, teaching doctrine, validating marriages, spending

St. Rafael Guízar Valencia,the Bishop of the Poor

time listening to confessions, and helping earth-quake victims.

One of his main preoccupations was the edu-cation of future priests. In 1921, he was able to save and renovate the old seminary of Xalapa, which was confiscated in 1914. Once again, how-ever, the government seized the building shortly after its renovation. He then moved the semin-ary to Mexico City where it continued to function clandestinely for 15 years. It was the only semin-ary that remained open during these years of per-secution. There were 300 seminary students.

Of the years in which he was in charge of the diocese, 9 years were spent in exile or fleeing for his life. In 1931, Governor Tejada of Veracruz decreed that only one priest would be allowed for each 100,000 Catholics. Bishop Rafael coun-tered with a nonviolent protest: he closed all the churches in his diocese. Tejada thereupon ordered that the Bishop be shot on sight. On learning this, Guízar at once went to the Governor’s palace, and strode into his office. He respected authority, he told the Governor, but said that he wished to spare Tejada’s assistants the trouble of shooting him. Boldness won out. Governor Tejada did not dare execute Bishop Guízar personally, so he was allowed to remain free.

His deathThe persecution did not cease until 1940. In

December of1937, while on a mission in Cordoba, Bishop Guízar suffered a heart attack and spent the rest of his days bedridden. From his deathbed, he managed the diocese and the seminary while he prepared his soul to meet Almighty God. He also celebrated Mass every day.

He died on June 6, 1938 in Mexico City. The next day he was laid to rest in Xalapa. The funeral procession was a triumphant event: everyone wanted to have a last look at “the Saintly Bishop Guízar”. This modern St. Athanasius died widely venerated for his zeal and holy courage.

On January 29, 1995, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome. And on October 15, 2006, he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. Saint Rafael Guízar Valencia, pray for us !

Here are excerpts from the Pope’s Angelus reflection at Castel Gandolfo on August 20, 2006:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, today the calen-dar mentions among the day’s saints Bernard of Clairvaux, a great Doctor of the Church who lived between the 11th and 12th centuries (1091-1153). His example and teachings are proving more use-ful than ever, even in our time. (...)

For him, love is the greatest strength of the spiritual life. God, who is love, creates man out of love, and out of love redeems him. The salvation of all human beings, mortally wounded by ori-ginal sin and burdened by personal sins, consists in being firmly attached to divine love which was fully revealed to us in Christ Crucified and Risen.

In His love, God heals our will and our sick under-standing, raising them to the highest degree of union with Him, that is, to holiness and mystical union. St Bernard deals with this, among other things, in his brief but substantial Liber de Diligendo Deo.

There is then another writing of his that I would like to point out, De Consideratione, addressed to Pope Eugene III. Here, in this very personal book, the dominant theme is the importance of inner re-collection — and he tells this to the Pope — an essential element of piety.

It is necessary, the Saint observes, to beware of the dangers of excessive activity whatever one’s condition and office, because, as he said to the Pope of that time and to all Popes, to all of us, many occupations frequently lead to “hard-ness of heart”, “they are none other than suffer-ing of spirit, loss of understanding, dispersion of grace” (II, 3).

This warning applies to every kind of occupa-tion, even those inherent in the government of

the Church. In this regard, Bernard addresses pro-vocative words to the Pontiff, a former disciple of his at Clairvaux: “See”, he writes, “where these accursed occupations can lead you, if you con-tinue to lose yourself in them... without leaving anything of yourself to yourself” (ibid).

How useful this appeal to the primacy of prayer and contemplation is also for us! May we too be helped to put this into practice in our lives by St Bernard, who knew how to harmonize the monk’s aspiration to the solitude and tranquillity of the cloister with the pressing needs of import-ant and complex missions at the service of the Church.

Let us entrust this desire, not easy to find, that is, the equilibrium between interiority and neces-sary work, to the intercession of Our Lady, whom he loved from childhood with such a tender and filial devotion as to deserve the title: “Marian Doc-tor”. Let us now invoke Her so that She may ob-tain the gift of true and lasting peace for the whole world.

In one of his famous discourses, St. Bernard compares Mary to the Star that navigators seek so as not to lose their course: “Whoever you are who perceive yourself during this mortal existence to be drifting in treacherous waters at the mercy of the winds and the waves rather than walking on firm ground, turn your eyes not away from the splendour of this guiding star, unless you wish to be submerged by the storm! ... Look at the star, call upon Mary.... With Her for a guide, you will never go astray; ...under Her protection, you have nothing to fear; if She walks before you, you will not grow weary; if She shows you favour you will reach the goal (Hom. Super Missus Est, II, 17).

Benedict XVI

Balance between interiority and work

Documents

October, month of the Rosary