Only The Truth Will Set Us Free

Kolbe Report 6/6/26

Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In our publication Loved, Lost and Found, we give many examples of how the universal memory of the events recorded in the first eleven chapters of the sacred history of Genesis provided a basis for successful evangelization all over the world. Recently, I read an account of the historical and cultural background to the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe which resulted in the greatest and most rapid mass conversion in the history of the Church. Prior to the apparitions, Franciscan missionaries had attempted to evangelize the indigenous Nahua people, but their efforts were frustrated by ignorance of local traditions.

The indigenous had a vivid memory of the first created world which they also associated with an eternal paradise beyond the earth. Their most sacred rites involving dances, songs, poems, and dramatic performances invoked this transcendent realm as the Flower World Paradise. In one of their most celebrated song-poems, the “Cuicapeuhcayotl,” “The Origin of Songs,” the poet describes his journey to the Flower World Paradise, a place of transcendent beauty, filled with luminous plants, birds, and animals of all kinds. There he gathers heavenly flowers in the folds of his tilma, or outer garment, but he laments his failure to bring them back to the earth.

When the missionaries first met with representatives of the indigenous people and shared the Gospel, they did not describe the first created world in the brilliant terms that characterized the Flower World in local traditions, and they spoke of the Eternal Paradise in abstract terms which did not evoke the indigenous concept of the Eternal Paradise as a place of transcendent beauty, characterized by luminous ideal forms of plants, birds, and animals. The missionaries also did not understand the ambiguity attached to the indigenous people’s words for the divinity, some of which applied to a dualistic god, others to a kind of spiritual force that pervaded their polytheistic pantheon, and only a few of which evoked the concept of a Supreme Being.

When the missionaries reproached the indigenous people for believing in gods whose behavior could be so cruel as to require human sacrifice, and invited them to accept the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, they did not realize that their failure to firmly root their proclamation of the Gospel in the traditions of the people raised a humanly-insuperable obstacle to the success of their efforts. In response to the missionaries’ preaching, a Nahua spokesman answered:

You said that we didn’t know
The God of Far and Near (In Tlogque Najuaque)
To him whose heaven and earth are (in ilhucaua in tlatiticpaque).
You said that ours are not true gods (Nelli Teotl)
New word (yancuic) is this, the one you speak
And for this we are disturbed,
Because of this we are terrified.
Because our parents, those who came to be, to live on earth, didn’t talk like that.

The missionaries did not realize that their failure to root the Gospel firmly in the traditions of the Nahua people made their presentation of the Gospel something “new” (yancuic) and rendered it suspicious to people who were convinced that any true Revelation from above must be a fulfillment of what had been handed down to them, and not a novelty. By the grace of God, the Queen of Heaven understood what her beloved missionaries did not yet understand, and She was able to re-present the Gospel to the Nahua people through her chosen son St. Juan Diego in a form that they could immediately recognize as the complete fulfillment of all that was good, true and beautiful in the traditions of their ancestors.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

When St. Juan Diego met Our Lady on Tepeyac Mountain, he literally walked into the “Cuicapeuhcayotl,” “The Origin of Songs,” and received her miraculous flowers in the folds of his tilma. Ironically, when one of the Franciscan missionaries, Fr. de Sahugun, and his indigenous converts recorded the song-poems of the Nahua people, Fr. de Sahugan became convinced that the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was diabolical, because of its striking resemblance to the pagan song-poem “Cuicapeuhcayotl”! In the aftermath of the apparitions, flowers, stars, and a sunburst were imprudently painted on the tilma, and anti-Catholic apologists now point to those “retouches” and to Fr. de Sahugan’s condemnation of the apparitions to destroy the faith, especially, of Hispanic Catholics. In reality, the “retouches” do nothing to invalidate the numerous scientific studies that have demonstrated the miraculous nature of the image, and, in light of the historical background that has come to light in recent decades, Fr. de Sahagun’s rash judgment of the image only highlights the transcendent nature of Our Lady’s maternal understanding and love for her children.

Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Ancient Chinese Characters

Just as Our Lady of Guadalupe used the ancient traditions of the Nahua People to prepare them to receive and embrace the Gospel, as Queen of China She is once again preparing for the evangelization of that great nation. One of our co-workers is a native of China who has devoted herself to studying the most ancient Chinese characters to unveil the way that they reveal a knowledge of fundamental truths of our holy Religion and of events recorded in the first eleven chapters of the sacred history of Genesis. She writes:

The Chinese Characters are hieroglyphic, which means they were originally pictures, and they eventually changed into today’s form, which is square and with strokes. It is not so difficult for us to find out the original meaning of those parts of the word as long as we look at how the word was transformed through history. The communist government simplified the characters in an artificial and brutal way, which removed certain important historical elements from the original characters.

Here I will list some good examples of some ancient Chinese characters which reveal a knowledge of the true God from the beginning of Chinese history.

1. Light -> 光

The top of the character is a fire flame, while a person kneels below the fire. It seems the flame is actually the person’s head. It is interesting that the word “light” is related to fire. It is a good reminder of Pentecost. While the Apostles and Our Lady were praying, tongues of fire came to rest on their heads. In the Gospel of St. Luke 11:34, Our Lord teaches that “The lamp of your body is your eye.” (See the person’s head is full of light) To the right is the current Chinese word “light”: -> 光

Light

2. Brightness -> 明

The left part of the word is a “moon”, the right part is a “sun”. When we have sun and moon, we have brightness. This is also a hidden wisdom, for a foolish person could argue that moon is not so bright at night at all, but Genesis 1:16 teaches “And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars.”

While in the beginning, there was no light, and the light came from God, later, Sun and Moon were both made by God to give light. The current Chinese word “brightness” has the sun in the left while the moon stays in the right: -> 明

Brightness

3. Kindness ->-> 善

The top of this word is a “sheep.” The bottom of the word is an “eye.” It is a hint to me that it is kind for us to adore our lamb of God. Later, it transformed into a word with sheep on the top, and two talking persons at the bottom. Why would kindness be signified by talking under a sheep? Without faith this word is mysterious, but with faith we know that kindness flows from the Lamb of God. Only in Him, with Him, and through Him can we show true kindness to each other.

Kindness

4. Righteousness -> 義

The top of this word again is “sheep.” The bottom is “I” or “me.” When I raise up the sheep, it is a righteous thing. The interesting thing is that “I” in its ancient form is actually a weapon. This weapon sacrifices the sheep in the word “Righteousness”. -> 我

Righteousness

Me, I

Why would “I” be a weapon? It is almost hinting at the spiritual battle that we must wage against ourselves. As terrible as I am, a sinner, “I” sacrificed the lamb, and He, through this sacrifice, made “me” righteous in front of God. – Again, no one can explain this word except through our faith.

5. Good omen -> 祥

The left part of this word is an altar and the right part is a sheep. Why would the sacrifice of a sheep on an altar be a good omen?

One might argue that it only symbolizes the ancient sacrifices, but why is the “sheep” used exclusively to express these positive meanings? Ancient Chinese also used oxen and pigs to offer sacrifice, but there are no other words with positive meanings similar to “good omen” with “pig” or “ox” as part of the word.

These words are good examples of the way that God revealed Himself through the ancient Chinese Characters. However, one needs a certain grace from God to recognize that these revelations come from Him. Not everyone will agree with my explanations, but those who are guided by Him will see and understand.

Good Omen

It is also important to avoid going beyond the evidence. Some Chinese Protestants who were eager to win converts others offered explanations for some words without thoroughly researching their history. This has provoked criticism in China and has made their work ineffective. A good example of this phenomenon is the character for “boat”, “船” in Chinese. Some apologists have tried to translate this character as “Ark,” but it was never the correct word for that purpose. The Ark is not simply a boat. In the Chinese Catholic Bible (Scot Version), the ark is translated as “方舟”, which is Not “船”. Hence, it is inaccurate to point to the Chinese character for “boat” and to tell people that the word refers to Noah’s Ark.

The right part of “船 [here the author wrote it like ]” is “沿 [here the author wrote like ]”, which means “following”, “according to”; the “” is not “eight”, for “eight” is two separated strokes while “” is a connected character. One can insist that it is a revelation but that will spark controversy, because the ancient word for boat was not formed to indicate “boat” + “8 people ” but “boat”+”move along in the water”.

There are also differences between Chinese Protestant Biblical language and Chinese Catholic Biblical language. The Chinese Catholic Biblical language was approved by the reigning Pope, while Protestants use whatever words they like. For example, “God”, should be translated as “天主” in Catholic Chinese Biblical language, which means “Lord in Heaven,” while Protestants translated it as “上帝”, which means “emperor above” or “神”, which menas “deity” , which was not approved by the Catholic church.

Here our faithful co-worker highlights the importance of strict fidelity to the truth, even when it is tempting to go beyond the evidence for the sake of effective evangelization. Those who added “retouches” to the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the sake of highlighting her identify as the “Woman clothed with the sun” in Revelation 12:1 dishonored the Gospel. Indeed, as the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn wisely observed, “He who adds to the truth subtracts from it”!

Incorrupt Body of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837)

Blessed Anna Maria Taigi Prophesies the Conversion of China

During the nineteenth century, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, a simple saintly Roman housewife, received one of the most remarkable mystical gifts ever recorded—a luminous globe in which God revealed to her events taking place in various places in the present and in the future. During the last 25 years of her life, Msgr. Raffaele Natali, a trusted priest and secretary of the Chambermaster of Pope Pius VII, recorded her prophecies and ecstasies in more than 4,000 handwritten pages. This document was carefully analyzed in the beatification process, which was introduced by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1863. In 1906, Pope St. Pius X declared the heroicity of her virtues, and on May 30, 1920, Pope Benedict XV placed Ven. Ana Maria Taigi among the Blessed. The Decree of her Beatification calls her “a marvel in the splendor of holiness.”

During the intense power struggle between the Pope Pius VII and Napoleon, Blessed Anna Maria prayed and suffered for the Holy Father. In her luminous globe God revealed to her the precise date of the liberation of Pope Pius VII, the decline and fall of Napoleon, the exact date of his death, and many other events that she predicted with pinpoint accuracy. In harmony with the other prophecies mentioned above, Blessed Anne Maria foretold a time of terrible tribulation when the enemies of the Church would appear to triumph. According to Monsignor Natali, at this time:

Many millions of men will die by steel, some in wars, others in conflicts, and millions more by unforeseen death, and this throughout the whole world. As a result, entire nations will return to the unity of the Catholic Church, many Turks, Gentiles and Hebrews will be converted in a way that will surprise Catholics, who will be amazed by the fervor and observance they will show in their lives.

In short, she told me that the Lord wanted to purge the world and His Church, and for that He had prepared a new crop of souls who, unknown, would appear to perform great works and surprising miracles. She told me that after the Lord had cleansed the earth with wars, revolutions and other calamities, Heaven would begin [its chastisement]. For, at the end of this scourge, there would be a general convulsion of shocking meteorological phenomena with many deaths. The Servant of God told me several times that the Lord showed her in the mysterious sun the universal triumph of the renewed Church, by a manner so great and surprising that she could not describe it.

Blessed Anna Maria foretold that:

God will ordain two punishments: one, in the form of wars, revolutions, and other evils, will originate on earth; the other will be sent from Heaven. There will come over all the earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights. Nothing will be visible and the air will be laden with pestilence, which will claim principally but not exclusively, the enemies of religion . . . Only blessed candles can be lighted and will afford illumination . . . All the enemies of the Church, secret as well as known, will perish over the whole earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of a few, whom God will soon after convert. The air will be infected by demons who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms.

After the three days of darkness, St. Peter and St. Paul, having come down from heaven, will preach in the whole world and designate a new Pope. A great light will flash from their bodies and will settle upon the cardinal, the future Pontiff. Then Christianity will spread throughout the world. He is the Holy Pontiff, chosen by God to withstand the storm. At the end he will have the gift of miracles, and his name shall be praised over the whole earth.

[During this period] France shall fall into a frightful anarchy. The French shall have a desperate civil war in the course of which old men themselves will take up arms. The political parties, having exhausted their blood and their rage without being able to arrive at any satisfactory understanding, shall at the last extremity agree by common consent to have recourse to the Holy See. Then the Pope shall send to France a special legate . . . In consequence of the information received, His Holiness himself shall nominate a most Christian king for the government of France . . . Whole nations will come back to the Church, and the face of the earth will be renewed. Russia, England, and China will come into the Church.

We believe that our co-worker’s book unveiling knowledge of the Christian God and the sacred history of Genesis in the most ancient Chinese characters will contribute greatly to the evangelization and conversion of the entire Chinese nation in the Era of Peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima. Please keep her and this important project in your prayers.

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

Hugh Owen

P.S. Today is a First Saturday, but anyone who went to confession during Holy Week or in the week to come will fulfill the confession requirement. Our Lady’s other First Saturday requests can be found at this link.

P.P.S. Our last newsletter highlighted the remarkable scarlet worm – LINK – in tandem with a promotion of our leadership retreat and the participation of insect expert Dr. Kenneth Stein on the faculty. True to form, Dr. Stein corrected a mistake in the newsletter which I will now pass on to you:

There are a few embellishments in the source article but only one inaccuracy. The first instar nymphs or crawlers feed on phloem sap along with subsequent instars and adult females. These insects possess piercing-sucking mouthparts that are used to penetrate plant vascular tissue.

There are two species that are similar: Kermes ilicis and Kermes vermilio. In both of these species, the eggs hatch within or from the mother’s hardened body and the first instars or crawlers emerge from a small opening or when the mother’s shell ruptures. The crawlers search for a suitable spot on the host plant and begin feeding on sap (from various oak species as you point out). While it is true that the mother provides cover for her developing eggs, she isn’t a food source for them.

Thank you, Dr. Stein!