Kolbe Report 3/5/22

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Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center

Glory to Jesus Christ!

On several occasions, we have taken the opportunity to reflect on the special receptivity to the Kolbe mission that we have found in Uganda, “the pearl of Africa,” since our first mission there almost six years ago.  If you are not familiar with the story of how we began our mission  in Uganda, please read the article at this link so that you have a better appreciation for what I am going to share with you in this newsletter.

Since the founding of the Kolbe Center twenty-two years ago, we have been all over the world, but we have not had as positive a reception from Bishops, priests, and lay leaders in any other nation as we have received in Uganda.  We believe that this receptivity flows from an anointing upon the Church in Uganda as a legacy of the Holy Uganda Martyrs who received the seed of the Faith from the last generation of missionaries whose own formation was free from any taint of modernism.  These holy missionaries taught the first generation of Ugandan Catholics the dogma of creation as it was set forth in the Catechism of the Council of Trent.  The new converts learned that God had specially created one man for one woman for life from the beginning of creation and that this was God’s unchangeable plan for Holy Marriage.

St. Charles Lwanga and the other principal leaders of the new Catholic community lived and worked in the court of the Kabaka, or King, of the Kingdom of Buganda—which developed into the modern nation of Uganda.  In the royal court, the king practiced polygamy on an enormous scale, and his hundreds of wives frequently attempted to lead the young men of the court into sin. Muslim traders from Zanzibar had not only reinforced the practice of polygamy but had also introduced homosexual vice into the kingdom, a vice to which the Kabaka himself became addicted and which he used his royal authority to compel the young men of the court to engage in.  In these circumstances, the new Catholics bore witness to the truth that any use of the gift of sexuality outside of Holy Marriage between one man and one woman for life was a grave sin and a sacrilege; and it was their fidelity to this teaching that led to their persecution and martyrdom on account of their resistance to the King’s perverse demands.

The Glorious Legacy of the Holy Uganda Martyrs

Almighty God has seen fit to honor the glorious legacy of the Holy Uganda Martyrs by inspiring an ever-increasing number of pilgrims to visit the Shrine of the Martyrs in Namugongo, a suburb of the capital city Kampala.  Before Coronamania erupted, millions of pilgrims converged on the Shrine from all over East Africa every year on the martyrs’ feast day, making it the most visited Catholic place of pilgrimage in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.  As we returned to Uganda again and again, it became increasingly clear to us that the willingness of the Holy Uganda Martyrs to give their lives for the truth contained in the sacred history of Genesis has obtained a special blessing from God which has made Bishops, priests, and lay faithful exceptionally receptive to our mission to restore the traditional doctrine of creation as the foundation of the Faith.  With the encouragement of several Ugandan Bishops, we were on the brink of establishing an international headquarters for the Kolbe Center in Uganda near to where the first French missionaries landed on the shores of Lake Victoria almost 150 years ago.  When Coronamania erupted, a severe nation-wide lockdown, vaccine mandates, and other Covid-related government policies made it impossible for us to move ahead with our plans.  However, thanks to the dedication of our co-workers in Uganda, the work of the Kolbe Center has continued to advance by leaps and bounds, especially in the Diocese of Soroti where our co-workers enjoy the full support of the local Bishop and his chancery officials.

Kolbe Co-Workers for Christ in Uganda

During the past three years, our co-workers Stephen Ogol and Isaac Enyamu have opened the eyes of an amazing number of adults and young Catholics to the truth that the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation is the only firm foundation for a culture of life.  The following is a list of their venues in various dioceses in Uganda:

1. Kampala University Catholic students' retreat (2019).
2. Bukalasa Agricultural College Catholic community retreat (2019).
3. Talent Vocational Training Institute, general student body (2019).
4. Four-day national youth conference held at The Catholic Diocese of Kasana Luwero (2019).
5. East Africa Institute of Professional Counselors- Kampala annual retreat (2020).
6. Five-day Daughters of Mary School Masindi beginning of year students' retreat (2020).
7. Three-day St. John the Evangelist annual youth retreat (2021).
8. Four-day Deanery youth conference held at St Benedict Catholic Parish (2021).
9. Deanery youth conference held at Usuk Parish (2021).
10. St. Benedict Catholic Parish-Amucu three-day Catechists' gathering (2021).

Faith and Works

St. James in his Epistle warns against faith without works:

What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food: And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself (James 5:14-17).

Stephen and Isaac have heeded this admonition and have not neglected the poorest of the poor while proclaiming the Catholic doctrine of creation as the foundation of the Gospel.  Acts of charity they have done while advancing the mission of the Kolbe Center include:

1. Distributing food to the poorest of the poor, the sick, the elderly, widows and widowers, orphans and the disabled.
2. Construction of a simple three-bedroom house for six orphans and their father.
3. Clothing poor children.
4. Distributing rosaries to the needy in the community and to students.
5. Providing cement for the construction of a catechist’s residence at St. Paul Catholic Church in Abia.
6. Providing transport to the sick during the lockdown.

While serving the poorest of the poor wherever they can, Stephen and Isaac have kept their primary focus on teaching the true doctrine of creation as the only firm foundation for a culture of life.  The following are some of the secondary schools that Stephen and Isaac have visited and where they have been allowed to establish "Creation Ambassadors Clubs":

1. Dakabela Comprehensive Secondary School. 245 students.
2. Amuria High School. 420 students.
3. Pelican Secondary School. 230 students.
4. Katine Secondary School. 498 students.
5. Cornerstone H.S- Okweta. 250 students.
6. Tubur Secondary School, 600 students.
7. Ococia Girls Secondary School. 360 students.
8. Star Light Secondary School – Orungo. 160 students.
9. Orungo High School. 400 students.
10. Asuret Core Primary Teacher's College. 411 students.
11. Light Secondary School. 730 students.
12. Morungatuny Secondary School. 370 students.
13. St. Peter's Secondary School, Acowa. 482 students.
14. Kuju Secondary School. 313 students.
15. St. Benedict Secondary School, Amucu. 558 students.
16. St. Francis Secondary School, Acumet. 490 students.
17. Uganda College of Commerce, Soroti. 926 students.
18. Obalanga Secondary School. 217 students.
19. Gweri Secondary School. 282 students.
20. Holy Cross Secondary School. 419 students.

Thanks to your prayers and donations to this apostolate, we have been able to support Stephen Ogol, Isaac Enyamu and other co-workers in Uganda to advance the Kolbe mission in a powerful way, even in the midst of the current Coronamania.  Please keep our Ugandan Kolbe co-workers in your prayers, so that the evolution-based modernism that has destroyed the faith of most young Catholics in the Western world will not be able to destroy the faith of young Catholics in Africa.  Through the prayers of Our Lady of Fatima, of St. Joseph, and of the Holy Uganda Martyrs, may the Church in Uganda become a bastion of the Traditional Catholic Faith and a launching pad for the evangelization of the whole world during the Era of Peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima.

Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,

Hugh Owen

P.S. Today is a First Saturday. Please be sure to answer Our Lady’s appeal for the First Saturday devotions as described by the Fatima Center at this link.

P.P.S.  In our experience, our Catholic brothers and sisters in Uganda love the Traditional Latin Mass when it is introduced to them, but they also love to "sing a new song unto the Lord" with all their hearts.  If you listen to the brief recording at this link you will get a feeling for the joy that animates the worship of the Church in Uganda.  The following are the words to the song, as translated by one of our priest friends from Uganda:

"Dear Christians, let us listen to the voice of Jesus Christ teaching His people the Words that give joy to our souls."

"Let us all come into the house of the Father and listen to His Word!

"Dear Christians, let us stand up as we listen to the voice of Jesus Christ teaching His people the Words that give joy to our souls!"