Supreme Knight Challenges Youth to Total Commitment

The Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, challenges the young men and women to fully and completely give their lives to the Lord in His Church and for the world. Speaks at Love and Life Catechetical Site.

SYDNEY, Australia (Zenit) - The Church needs young people who are committed and who will not compromise their ideals, according to the leader of the Knights of Columbus.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said this Wednesday in Sydney while participating at the "Under the Southern Cross" panel discussion at the Love and Life Site, hosted by Sister Mary Gabriel, the vocation director of the Sisters for Life.

The Sisters of Life together with the Knights of Columbus College Councils and John Paul II Institutes from around the world are co-hosting the Love and Life Site, devoted to catechesis and evangelization on human life and human love.

On the first of three days of catechetical programs for World Youth Day, hundreds of youth visited the Love and Life Site, located at Sydney's Notre Dame University.

"The Church is young, and what the Church needs is commitment," the supreme knight told the young pilgrims. "It needs people who will not compromise. It needs people who have ideals and are willing to act on their ideals. The Church needs your witness.

"Be who you are, and strive to be what God is calling you to be. He's calling you to greatness."

Bishop Joseph Pepe of Las Vegas reminded the pilgrims at Mass on Wednesday in St. Benedict's Church of the great dignity and responsibility that comes with baptism, saying they must be Christ's presence in the world.

"Some have tried to bring peace to the world without Jesus, but that is an impossibility," Bishop Pepe said in his homily. "Christ must be the center of your lives."

Barbecue

The college Knights grilled hundreds of sausages for an estimated 1,500 hungry youth who filled the Love and Life Site's courtyard after the conclusion of Mass.

More pilgrims arrived to hear Catholic musician Matt Maher.

Throughout the day, pilgrims were invited to visit the chapel to participate in Eucharistic adoration, and the sacrament of reconciliation was available. Other opportunities for prayer included the liturgy of the hours and an international rosary led by the college Knights in five languages.

In the afternoon and evening, speakers delivered talks to standing-room-only audiences in the university's classrooms and auditorium on the theology of the body and other topics related to the dignity of human life and love.