Taking the faith home with us

Archbishop Timothy Dolan welcomes pilgrims at the beginning of cathechesis at the Love and Life Center.

Despite arriving home very late the night before, on Friday morning we were up and out the door by 9 a.m. to make our way to the Life and Love Center in Madrid for the morning’s catechesis. We had heard it would be delivered by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and former primate of our neighboring Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

It was an easy bus ride in to Madrid, where we caught the metro. As usual, it was packed with the many pilgrims from around the world, each group going to their own destination.

At the Love and Life Center, we arrived just as Archbishop Dolan was making his way through the crowd at the front entrance, pumping hands and smiling as he was greeted enthusiastically by young Catholics.

Catechesis at the Palacio De Deportes

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.