Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
May 13 will be the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the most important private revelation in modern history. For that reason, I feel obliged to repeat what I have written in a number of previous newsletters about the Fatima Consecration, because of the decisive role that it is predestined to play in the purification of the Church and in the restoration of the true Catholic doctrine of creation.
On October 13, 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, Almighty God worked the "Miracle of the Sun" to show that the message of His Mother to the three little children of Fatima was urgent and true. Seventy thousand people - including many who had come to scoff - witnessed the Miracle of the Sun. Seventy thousand people who had been soaked to the skin by hours of pelting rain were instantly warmed and dried, clothing and all, at the Blessed Mother's visitation.
Evolution: The Principal Error of Russia
Just weeks after the Miracle of the Sun, the Bolshevik Revolution took place in Russia. The leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, Vladmir Lenin had been born into a Christian home but lost his faith as a teenager and embraced evolutionary materialism. On his desk sat a sculpture of a chimpanzee sitting on a pile of books, including Darwin's Origin of Species, contemplating a human skull. Lenin coolly sat in the presence of that sculpture, overseeing the murders of millions of innocent people, all in the name of evolutionary progress. Lenin's successor as communist dictator of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, also lost his faith in God as a seminarian after reading Darwin and Lyell and embracing evolutionism. He oversaw the murder of more than twenty million people - all in the name of evolutionary progress. When communism spread to China, Mao Tse Tung's forces held compulsory seminars in every town they captured, not in the teachings of Marx, Lenin, or Mao - but in evolutionism - because, in the words of Passionist missionary bishop Cuthbert O'Gara, evolutionary theory could be used to destroy people's faith in God, in the soul, and in the after-life, and communism could then take root in the minds of the people.
The evolutionary hypothesis provided a rationale for communist movements all over the world. It also provided a pseudo-scientific rationale for the eugenics movement in the United States, Germany and elsewhere, leading to large numbers of compulsory sterilizations of "less fit" people. Evolutionary "science" was used to justify the work of the Birth Control League and the dismantling of taboos against any kind of sexual perversion - since evolutionary theory proved that humans are descended from sub-human primates and therefore what is natural for sub-human primates is also "natural" for humans. Evolutionary theory was used to justify genocide in the German colony of Namibia in the early twentieth century and to justify the ideology of the Nazi party which took power in Germany in 1933. Within Germany, evolutionary science was used to justify euthanasia of the "less fit" and the cruel medical experiments of Dr. Mengele upon living human beings, all designed to benefit the strong at the expense of the weak. According to Adolf Hitler, the purpose of the Nazi Party was to advance evolution.
Today, the communist and Nazi ideologies are no longer taken seriously in most parts of the world, but evolutionism taints the very air we breathe from one end of the earth to the other. Of all the errors that have "spread throughout the world," none has endured or spread as successfully as "evolutionism," which in its theistic form has been embraced at the highest levels of Catholic government and academia. With the propagation of theistic evolution, most Catholic young people in the once-Christian nations of the world are taught to scoff at the sacred history of Genesis and are taught instead to believe that the god of evolution used hundreds of millions of years of death, destruction, deformity and disease to evolve the bodies of the first human beings in the wombs of evolved sub-human primates.
The Catalyst for the Request for the Consecration of Russia
On June 13, 1929, Our Lady came to Sister Lucia in a convent and asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Have you ever wondered why our Blessed Mother waited twelve years to ask Sister Lucia to ask the Pope to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? I believe that the answer can be found in events that occurred in Russia earlier that year, which showed that the evolution-based communist regime had taken a decisive step to eradicate the memory of the true God from the minds of the Russian people. Pope Pius XI wrote of these events in a letter published early in 1930. He wrote:
During the Christmas holidays [in January], not only were hundreds of churches closed, great numbers of icons burned, all workers and schoolchildren compelled to work and Sundays suppressed, but they even compelled factory workers, both men and women, to sign a declaration of formal apostasy and hatred against God, or else be deprived of their bread rationing cards, clothing, and lodging, without which every inhabitant of this poor country is reduced to dying of hunger, misery, and cold.
The suppression of Sunday has been a hallmark of Satanic regimes in modern times, beginning with the French Revolution. As the widespread acceptance of Lyellian geology eroded the faith of Christians in the sacred history of Genesis and in the six days of creation, the approved apparitions of Our Lady which began with Our Lady of Salette emphasized the gravity of sins against the Third Commandment - the desecration of Sunday.
In our evolution-saturated world, even most devout Catholics think of Sunday almost exclusively as the commemoration of Our Lord's Glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. From the time of the Apostles, however, this was not the case. For the Apostles and Fathers of the Church, Sunday commemorated the "first Sunday of the world" when God said, "Let there be light," created physical light and the angels, separated the light from the darkness to create the day-night cycle, and separated the holy angels from Lucifer and the rebellious spirits. Sunday was also the commemoration of the Descent of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, each of whose members becomes a "new creation" in Christ and a partaker of the Divine Nature through Holy Baptism. In short, Sunday is the liturgical commemoration of three creations - the Fiat Creation of the first-created world; the New Creation in Christ Our Redeemer; and the New Creation of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ through Holy Baptism. Thus, the suppression of Sunday by the communist regime in Russia was a foreshadowing of the future reign of Antichrist and the total denial of God's supernatural work of Creation, Redemption and Sanctification.
"You Yourself Are Awaiting Our Consecration"
Lucia relayed Our Lady's request to her bishop, but the request was not heeded, and, in 1938, World War II erupted during the reign of Pope Pius XI with the Nazi invasion of Austria. Since then, several Popes have spoken of the importance of the Fatima message and have made Fatima consecrations of various kinds, but none of them has fulfilled Our Lady's specific request for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the Pope with all the Bishops.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II miraculously survived an assassination attempt on the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima. As he recovered from his wounds, the Holy Father reviewed the Fatima messages and resolved to go to Fatima to thank the Blessed Virgin for saving his life. On the feast of the Annunciation, 1984, in the presence of 250,000 faithful, Pope John Paul II invited the bishops of the world to join him as he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary - but again without a specific mention of Russia.
Significantly, during the consecration the Pope departed from his prepared text and begged Our Lady to enlighten "the peoples of which You Yourself are awaiting our consecration." These words were included in an official account of the consecration published in L'Osservatore Romano on March 26, 1984 and in a similar article in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops. With these words the Holy Father acknowledged that the mention of Russia had been deliberately omitted from the prayer of consecration. On several occasions during the next five years, Sister Lucia confirmed that the 1984 consecration had not mentioned Russia and therefore did not fulfill Our Lord's request. Cardinal Alfons Stickler and Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer also confirmed this in an interview in 1987.
Nevertheless, in 1989, Father Coelho reported that Vatican officials had ordered Sister Lucy to reverse herself and to assert that the Consecration of Russia had been performed. From that day until Sister Lucy's death in 2005, various statements were attributed to Sister Lucy to the effect that the 1984 consecration had fulfilled Our Lord's request for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But no firm evidence has yet been produced to show that she or the Pope himself believed that the consecration of Russia had been performed. On the contrary, the preponderance of evidence points to the conclusion that the peoples "awaiting our consecration," to use Pope John Paul II's words, are still awaiting it.
Cardinal Bertone, the former Vatican Secretary of State, has claimed that the consecration of the world by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984 fulfilled Our Lady of Fatima's requirements. However, this cannot be the case for several reasons.
In the first place, it is not possible to consecrate a nation or a person without naming the nation or the person.
In the second place, Jesus insisted on the consecration of Russia to His Mother's Immaculate Heart so that the world would know that the conversion of Russia was the fruit of that consecration. This intention cannot possibly have been fulfilled, since Russia has not been converted. It is estimated that no more than seven per cent of the Russian people attend Church services every Sunday, while the country as a whole is wracked with organized crime, political corruption, violent persecution of independent journalists, alcoholism, abortion, pornography, and prostitution. It would be blasphemous to call this the "conversion of Russia" promised by Our Lady of Fatima.
Finally, Biblical history and Church history prove that God's commands must be obeyed precisely to attain His promised rewards. When Naaman the Leper was told by the Prophet Elisha to wash seven times in the Jordan River, he asked his Hebrew servant why he should wash in the Jordan when he had better rivers to wash in back home. But when he obeyed the command of Elisha, he was healed instantly. When Archbishop Zumarraga of Mexico City obeyed Our Lady of Guadalupe's precise instructions - conveyed through Saint Juan Diego - to build a shrine in her honor on Mt. Tepeyac, eight million Indians converted to Christianity in the next ten years. In the same way, when the Pope obeys the specific requests of Our Lady of Fatima, Russia will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
Allow me to close with an analogy, inspired by the claim of two cardinals quoted anonymously some years ago, who stated that Pope St. John Paul II did not consecrate Russia by name because he did not want to "offend" the Russian Orthodox. (If this letter were not already over-long, it would be easy to prove that, rightly understood, a heavenly request for the consecration of a country is the highest compliment that could ever be paid to that nation!) Let us consider the case of a devout Catholic couple who care for the elderly father of the lady of the house in their home. The elderly man who is dying of cancer is vehemently anti-Catholic and swears violently whenever a priest enters the house, but the head of the household and his wife continue with their normal prayers undeterred by the old man's negative outbursts. One day they agree that they should ask their parish priest to consecrate their home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, pleading especially for the conversion of the dying man and making reparation for his blasphemies.
In response to their request, however, the parish priest takes counsel with his assistants who advise him that any attempt on the pastor's part to consecrate the home in question to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary will provoke the old man to blasphemy and do more harm than good. The parish priest then tells his parishioners that instead of consecrating their home to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he will consecrate their neighborhood, thus incorporating their home into the consecration but without giving offense to the irascible old man. Now, it may be quite reasonable to say that the neighborhood consecration is a substitute for the home consecration; but one thing that cannot be rationally affirmed is that the neighborhood consecration is the same thing as the home consecration. This would violate the law of non-contradiction. And yet this is what the faithful are asked to believe by those who follow the line of Cardinal Bertone.
Just think of it! When the consecration of Russia is performed according to Our Lady's request, the imminent eradication of evolutionary errors from the face of the earth will be assured. Isn't that reason enough to live the message of Fatima and to pray and plead continually for the consecration of Russia?
Tomorrow, Sunday, May 10, 2020, at 5 p.m. EST, St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Kolbe Center will jointly host a Zoom seminar entitled, "Creation, Evolution and the Message of Fatima: The Church in Ukraine Can Save the World." In the seminar, we will explain why we believe that the Church in Ukraine is uniquely positioned in God's Providence to persuade the Pope to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in fulfillment of Our Lady of Fatima's request. If you are not able to attend the live-streamed seminar, the seminar will be recorded and posted on the Kolbe website. To join the seminar live, just click on this link at 5 p.m. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89639236814
Through the prayers of Our Lady of Fatima, may God grant us the grace to live our consecration to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary in every moment, that we may obtain the grace for the Holy Father to consecrate Russia with all the Bishops, and so to usher in the conversion of Russia and an era of peace throughout the world.
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. We continue to receive rave reviews for our DVD series "Foundations Restored" from all over the world. Recently, Fr. Robert Baker, S.J., editor emeritus of Homiletic and Pastoral Review wrote:
"Foundations Restored: a Catholic Perspective on Origins" is a DVD series in 17 parts or lessons that presents the Catholic truth on the origin of the universe and the appearance of Adam and Eve on the earth. The learned Catholic priests and laymen, featured on the screen, debunk the false claims of the Cartesian-Darwinian theories concerning the origin of the world and the beginning of life. With philosophical, theological and scientific arguments it defends the historical value of Genesis 1-3, and puts a knife in the heart of contemporary evolutionism, which is the engine of atheism.
Please encourage friends and family to investigate the DVD series. They can watch the first episode gratis on the Sensus Fidelium YouTube Channel and the first two episodes gratis on the foundations restored website www.foundationsrestored.com.
