July 31-August 6, 2025

Catholic Conference Center, Hickory, NC

The traditional Catholic doctrine of creation is the foundation of our Faith and the only firm foundation for a culture of life. 

To help build a culture of life and evangelize the Faith, the Kolbe Center is hosting its thirteenth annual 7-day/6-night Kolbe Center leadership retreat July 31-August 6 to equip clergy and laity to defend and transmit the true Catholic doctrine of creation, from the perspective of theology, philosophy and natural science, within their spheres of influence.

The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation is a Roman Catholic apostolate founded in 2000 to defend the Church’s traditional teachings on creation by proclaiming the truth about the origins of man and the universe as revealed by Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and confirmed by modern scientific findings. The Center hosts its annual retreat for leaders and supporters each summer.

At this retreat you’ll learn:

• Why the doctrine of creation is the best way to keep our children in the Catholic faith
• How the Church teaching on origins and Scripture remains the only firm basis for building a culture of life
• The failures of Darwinian and molecules-to-man theory to explain our origins
• How twenty-first century natural science has refuted the challenge mounted against the traditional doctrine of creation

Ideal for:

• Homeschool parents (all children welcome)
• Students (age 14 & up)
• Pro-life volunteers
• Catholic teachers and professors
• Clergy

The retreat will include:

• Informative lectures from 10am – 9 pm
• Daily Holy Mass
• Accommodations for families
• All organic breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Fellowship time
• Activities for children
• Participate in a children’s play (ages 6-14)

Presenters: The conference presenters are members of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation leadership team and faculty, which includes experts in theology, philosophy and natural science. The chaplain for this year’s leadership retreat is Fr. Lawrence Carney, Founder and Director of the League of St. Martin and author of The Secret of the Holy Face.

Topics will include

• The Basis in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition for the Catholic Doctrine of Creation
• The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch;
• Errors of the Cartesian-Darwinian Narrative;
• Origin of the Cosmos and Inadequacies of the Big Bang Model
• Radiometric Dating and the Age of the Earth
• Interpreting the Fossil Record and Evidence for a Global Flood
• A truly Catholic Approach to Natural Science
• The Social Consequences of the Acceptance of Evolution:
• Globalization, AI, and the Anti-Culture of Death

Retreat Center: The Catholic Conference Center is a beautiful retreat center located in the countryside Piedmont of North Carolina, just an hour from Asheville and Charlotte. It has a full-time staff to prepare meals and offers accommodations for both single attendees and families with children.

Cost: The overnight stay for 6 nights (3 meals per day) is $600 for individuals and $900 for families.  Daytime conference rates are available for local attendees (3 meals per day). Contact Hugh Owen for details.

Registration/Questions: Contact: Hugh Owen, Director, Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, howen@shentel.net (540) 856-8453.

Normal Daily Schedule

• 6:15-6:30 Confessions
• 6:45-7:45 Holy Mass
• 8:00-9:00 Breakfast

(Monday through Friday, children from 5 to 12 years of age will have activities scheduled from five minutes before the start of the first morning session until five minutes after the last morning session.  A parent or teenage sibling should drop off and pick up the children from the children’s program each day.)

• 9:30-10:30 – Talk One
• 11:00-12:00 – Talk Two
• 12:05-12-55 – Lunch

(Every year, interested children and young adults participate in the production of an original play on the life of one or more saints whose lives relate to the mission of the Kolbe Center.  Monday through Friday, young people from 8 to 18 years of age who would like to participate in this year’s play will have play practice from the end of lunch until 3 p.m.  Later in the week, additional rehearsals will be required. A parent or teenage sibling should drop off and pick up the children under the age of 12 from play rehearsal each day.)

• 1:30 – Holy Mass for those who cannot attend the 6:45 Holy Mass.
• 2:30-3:30 – Talk Three
• 4:30-5:30 – Talk Four
• 5:35 - 6:30 - Dinner
• 7:00 - Rosary Walk (All nights weather permitting, or else indoors)
• 8:00-9:00: Talk Five

Endorsements

While unpopular and not ‘politically correct’ the views of the Kolbe Center are certainly fully in accord with the mind and the teachings of our Holy Catholic Church . . . May God bless the good work which you are doing to keep reminding us that the theory of evolution, its related theories and its aggressive proponents are not friends of a proper understanding of the human person or proper promoters of the Church’s dedication to human dignity.

+ Bishop Robert F. Vasa, Diocese of Santa Rosa, California

I cannot recommend a leadership retreat led by Mr. Hugh Owen and his (Kolbe Center) colleagues too highly…Mr. Owen and his colleagues have a complete grasp of the theological, philosophical and natural science aspects of the subject, and they know how to defend and transmit the true teaching of the Church on creation against modern errors.

• Walter Pasicznyk, Pastor, Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, Nanticoke, Pennsylvania

The myth of the so-called evolution brought the man of modern times to a life-style independent from his Creator with all the horrible cultural, social, moral and spiritual consequences. May the work of the Kolbe Center be wide spread and help to free the people of our days from the greatest myth of modern times and help them at the same time to direct their intellectual and spiritual glance to God their Creator.

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan