The Love and Life Centre in Madrid, a location for English-speaking pilgrims of World Youth Day 2011, is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life.
In the morning on August 17, the pilgrims headed out for catechesis at the Palacio De Deportes, where the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life are hosting the Love and Life Centre.
The vast center can hold 12,000 people — a number that was reached long before the catechesis with Cardinal George Pell began. The cardinal and current archbishop of Sydney, Australia, spoke on the topic of faith and reason.
“We have two alternatives: that the universe was created by chance, or that the universe was created through supreme intelligence,” he said.
One statistical source he quoted found the chances of amino acids, the basic building block of DNA, transforming themselves into life is a chance of one out of 10 to the 40,000th power. In comparison, sub atomic particles in the universe number 10 to the 80th power.
“It’s impossible,” the cardinal said. “So is the odds of monkeys banging away in a cage producing a Shakespearean sonnet.” A study by Gerry Schroeder found that statistical chance to be one in 10 to the 690th power.
“Life has not come about by chance,” the cardinal said. “And we should remember that when our faith is threatened, when we have dark moments.
“Underneath it all, our choice of God is rational. It makes no sense at all to believe the universe is a product of chance,” he continued. “We need to remember that science is behind us because the rational God is behind all creation. I don’t think it’s by chance the scientific revolution took off in the Christian world.”
Cardinal Pell concluded with a quote from St. AugustineSister, which ended with a sentiment he felt particularly appropriate to this gathering: “You are soon to go away, each to his own home. To be together in this same light has been good. But when we part from one another, let us not part from God.”
“Let us say Amen to that,” the cardinal said.
Following the cardinal’s catechesis talk was a Mass in which priests from English-speaking countries around the world concelebrated. Catechesis and Mass took place every morning Wednesday through Friday at the Love and Life Centre. Catechesis sessions , as well as a few other talks and panels, were led by a variety of bishops and archbishops. Other events at the center included talks by notable speakers and Church hierarchy such as Fr. Robert Barron of Chicago, Supreme Knight of Columbus Carl Anderson, and Curtis Martin.
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