50th anniversary of the death of Louis Even

Louis Even, the founder of MICHAEL, died on 29 September 1974 at the age of 89, 50 years ago in 2024. Throughout this year, starting with this issue of January-February 2024, we will be highlighting several aspects of Louis Even's remarkable life, including his spirituality, his courage and his trust in Divine Providence.

However, we must begin this series with the event that changed the course of his life: his discovery of the financial solution devised by the Scottish engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas, then known as Social Credit — a set of financial principles and proposals devised in 1917 (and first enunciated in 1918) by the Scottish engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas, to address the problem of the chronic lack of purchasing power in the hands of consumers. The words "social credit" mean social money — or national money, money issued by society — as opposed to today's money which is "bank credit" — money issued by banks.

When Louis Even discovered the great light of Social Credit in 1934, he immediately understood to what extent this solution would perfectly apply the Church's teaching on social justice — especially as regards the right of all to material goods, the distribution of daily bread to all, through the allocation of a social dividend to every human being.

By the way, you'll notice that in recent years we've preferred to refer to Douglas's financial principles as 'Economic Democracy' instead of 'Social Credit', to avoid confusion with the system of control in Communist China, also called 'Social Credit', which gives or subtracts points to citizens depending on whether or not they obey government directives. What Douglas, Louis Even and MICHAEL teach is quite the opposite: they talk about money at the service of society, respecting the freedom of every citizen.

Some people, especially new readers, may wonder why the MICHAEL magazine always focuses on the question of money. Louis Even writes: "It is because all economic problems, and almost all political problems, are above all problems of money. We never claim that the monetary question is the only one to be settled, the only one that should occupy us. Not even that it is the most important issue. But it is the most pressing, because everything is due to a money problem."

Look at all the different problems affecting society at the moment, and you'll see that almost all of them have to do with money: public and private sector employees demanding pay rises, governments trying to reduce their deficits and debts by cutting services and raising taxes, companies laying off employees to cut costs, families struggling to make ends meet, and so on.

It was for these reasons that Louis Even decided to propagate Douglas's doctrine. What's more, the words 'social credit' don't just refer to a monetary reform, they also refer to the bond of trust that makes it possible to live in society, that there is a minimum of order that allows us to exchange products and move around freely without the risk of being attacked in the street or robbed by your neighbour. Without respect for moral order — without religion — life in society is impossible: it's disorder, revolution and anarchy.

As we shall see in the next issue, Mr Even was a religious, a Brother of Christian Instruction, and therefore an educator, who also had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin: the good Lord used all this in Louis Even to help him found his great work of MICHAEL.

Mr. Even understood Social Credit straight away, but he could well have said "That's all very well, but I'll leave it to others to make it known." No, Mr. Even also had the heart of an apostle and a great love for the poor. It was his Catholic faith, and his great love for the Blessed Virgin, that made him say: "Social Credit is a light on my path; everyone must know that." And he went so far as to leave his job in the middle of an economic crisis (with a wife and children) to give himself totally to the cause of Social Credit, trusting in Divine Providence, which was not lacking.

What's more, Mr. Even understood from the outset that he was attacking not just bankers, but a satanic power. Money is Satan's main instrument for corrupting souls. Saint Paul wrote: "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). The devil uses today's money system to enslave the whole world, so that people idolize money instead of worshiping the good Lord.

Social Credit is a means (ensuring that goods reach those who need them), but the salvation of souls is the ultimate end. Mr. Even has also understood this. We'll look at this in more detail in the next issue, when we examine the spirituality of his Work.