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Kolbe Report 8-22-20

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,

Tomorrow we will begin our annual leadership retreat. Please pray that through the prayers of the Immaculate Heart of Mary God will bless all our endeavors!

In this newsletter I would like to draw your attention once again to the work of Mrs. Bai Macfarlane at Mary's Advocates, as I am convinced that it is intimately linked to the mission of the Kolbe Center. Bai has worked tirelessly to defend the permanence and indissolubility of Holy Marriage, but she has run up against a wall of opposition from Catholic Church leaders and canon lawyers who perpetuate the practice of sending married couples experiencing normal marital difficulties to a civil divorce court with the assurance that the diocesan marriage tribunal will decide the validity of the sacramental marriage after the divorce has been granted!

As Bai explains on her website, this practice ignores the traditional interpretation of the canon law on Holy Marriage which requires a Bishop's permission before one spouse can even separate from another and which provides various safeguards to protect the marriage bond. In effect, the current practice of sending Catholic couples to divorce court only exacerbates their marital difficulties. Worse still, it often punishes innocent spouses who want to honor their wedding vows and keep their marriages intact, and who have not done anything that would justify separation - much less the complete dissolution of their families. Aided and abetted by chancery officials in numerous dioceses, the perverse practices mentioned above have created an "annulment on demand" anti-culture within the Catholic community in this country. I urge you to support Bai's apostolate with your prayers and donations as she continues to fight to defend Catholic marriage.

The Sacred History of Genesis and the Divine Origin of Holy Marriage

How is the work of Mary's Advocates intimately linked to the mission of the Kolbe Center?

The answer can be found in Genesis, as understood in the Church from the beginning. I say this because the Apostles, Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers in their authoritative teaching always treated Genesis as a "sacred history" and would have died for the literal historical truth of every verse. Consequently, they took very seriously the Mosaic account of the creation Adam and Eve. They understood that Eve was literally created from Adam's side to show that marriage is of divine and not human institution. That is why just 140 years ago Pope Leo XIII wrote in Arcanum divinae:

We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time. And this union of man and woman, that it might answer more fittingly to the infinite wise counsels of God, even from the beginning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties - deeply sealed, as it were, and signed upon it - namely, unity and perpetuity (Arcanum divinae, V).

The current epidemic of Catholics seeking and obtaining civil divorces and annulments in record numbers also reflects a contempt for the sacred history of Genesis in another way. Treating the account of God's creation of Adam and Eve as a myth or an allegory has obscured the fact that God literally created Adam first to be the spiritual head of his wife and children. Not surprisingly, the majority of Catholic separations and annulments are now initiated by women who are often able to separate from their husbands and obtain hefty legal judgments against them for spousal and child support when the husbands have done nothing serious enough to justify separation under the traditional interpretation of canon law. It is time for all Catholics of good will to speak out against this abomination and to "speak the truth in charity" to married relatives, friends and acquaintances who may be tempted to seek the easy way out of marital difficulties by pursuing the path of separation and civil divorce followed by annulment. Bai has excellent resources on her website for couples who are experiencing marital difficulties, including the peer counseling available from trained married couples through Alexander House which has helped many Catholic couples to overcome the challenges that married couples normally face.

Through the prayers of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may the Lord raise up prelates after His own Heart to defend Holy Marriage and to restore the true doctrine of Creation as the foundation of our Faith!

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

Hugh Owen

P.S. Douay Rheims Bible tabs fundraising campaign:  As many know, the Douay Rheims Catholic Bible is the most accurate English Bible that safely translates key words upholding the Creation-Providence framework. For newcomers the Douay Rheims Bible can be a little challenging because the ancient names of many of its books differs from the names used in modern Bibles. To make it easier to read, a faithful Catholic in North Carolina is organizing a campaign to raise the necessary funds to help manufacture high quality Douay Rheims Bible tabs (Old & New Testaments). A donation of $15 will get you one set ($30 two). To learn more visit this website: https://wonderwe.com/drbibletabs

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