Tel: 540-856-8453 E-Mail: director@kolbecenter.org
"For me You have created the skies scattered with stars...and all the beautiful things on earth."
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Pax Christi!
One of the greatest obstacles to the restoration of the true Catholic doctrine of creation as the foundation of our Holy Faith is the widespread conviction that the science that gave us computers and cell phones is also the science that gives us Big Bang cosmology and molecules-to man-evolution. In reality, of course, the scientists and engineers who have given us computers and cell phones have done so by making careful observations, forming hypotheses and testing them by repeatable experiments. The pseudo-science of molecules-to-man evolution is based on the false uniformitarian philosophy of Descartes and the so-called Enlightenment philosophers and has never been confirmed by observation or experiment in nature or in the laboratory.
At the height of the clergy abuse that was going on in the United States, the dean of a Catholic seminary wrote that "At this time the behavioral sciences have not identified any sexual expression that can be empirically demonstrated to be of itself, in a culture-free way, detrimental to a full human existence." With these words, a superior charged with the formation of future priests elevated fallible human pseudo-science above the moral doctrine handed down from the Apostles. The horrendous ramifications of this inversion of the right order of knowledge--which elevated fallible human psychology above Theology, the Queen of Sciences--are explained at length in our booklet Clergy Abuse: Cause and Cure, available for the first time here as an e-book. But the catastrophic consequences of this inversion are almost never acknowledged, much less corrected, in Catholic intellectual circles.
When Pope Pius XII gave permission for Catholic scholars to examine the evidence for and against the hypothesis of human evolution, he did so in the context of the whole encyclical Humani generis in which he ordered the Bishops of the whole world to teach that Genesis 1-11 is true history, that the Bible is inerrant in all that it affirms in history or natural science as well as in matters of faith and morals, and that the metaphysical principles of traditional Catholic philosophy must be applied in any examination of the evolutionary hypothesis. He also warned that any hypothesis that contradicted the teaching of the Church on faith and morals must be rejected. If you have not read Fr. Victor Warkulwiz's excellent guide to the correct interpretation of Humani generis, we have now made it available as an e-book on the Kolbe website and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be able to offer a sound interpretation of this important encyclical.
God has promised that "where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more," so He has given His word that when sin perverts the use of any good thing, like technology in the service of natural science, He will give the grace necessary to overcome that abuse with a proper use of that good thing. A few days ago, one of our colleagues sent me a great example of this--a short video summarizing the latest research on the Holy Shroud of Turin which fully confirms its identification as the burial shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does the latest scientific research debunk the false claims that Carbon-14 dating proved that the Shroud originated in the Middle Ages; it also shows that the image of Christ on the Shroud is best explained as the result of a burst of energy from His Sacred Body at the very moment of His glorious Resurrection.
Not only does this remarkable research confirm the historical reality of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord. It also confirms the traditional doctrine of the Church on the Special Creation of Adam, body and soul. This can be explained quite simply. The Body of Our Lord was a corpse from Good Friday until Easter Sunday. A corpse is a disorganized mess of chemicals. It has absolutely no potential to become a living, breathing human body. But what does the scientific evidence show? It shows that at the MOMENT of the Resurrection, light radiated from the re-animated corpse, as it was instantaneously changed into a living, breathing human body. In this way the Sacred Humanity of the LAST ADAM was re-created instantly and supernaturally just as the Original Humanity of the first Adam was created instantly and supernaturally in the beginning of Creation. Thus, the Holy Shroud, in its own way, gives the lie to the blasphemous conjecture of human evolution.
The forensic evidence of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ should be proclaimed from the housetops--as we try to do through our Witnesses for Christ evangelistic outreach all over the world. Instead, it is generally treated as an interesting but dubious artifact and left unused, thus denying millions of unbelievers enamored of materialistic science the opportunity to encounter the living Lord with the aid of cutting edge forensic science and technology.
As we continue to prepare to enter into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us make use of the means He has given us to win as many souls as possible to Him. And, as we persevere in our Lenten penances, let us remember the Poor Souls, and ask them to pray for the restoration of the true Catholic doctrine of Creation, the foundation of our Holy Faith.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Our annual regional leaders retreat will be held at Conception Seminary in Conception, Missouri, from June 10-16. The retreat equips attendees to be regional leaders who can advance the mission of the Kolbe Center in their local areas. The retreat is open to adults, to teenagers 16 years of age or older with their parents' permission, and to families with children. Activities will be organized for the children every morning except Sunday throughout the retreat. If you are interested in attending the retreat, please contact me at howen@shentel.net as soon as possible.
P.P.S. Through the generosity of friends all over the world we have raised the money that we need to produce the DVD series "Foundations Restored." However, we now recognize that we will need to raise additional funds to market this tremendous product. If you have not made a donation to support our DVD project, please prayerfully consider going to the Kolbe home page and making a gift today. If you want your gift to be used only for marketing the DVD series, please send me an email and let me know.
