By Amanda Murthy
The invitation to prayer and discovery of faith and science drew hundreds of participants who attended the Why Be Catholic Conference (WBC) from Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 October.
Themed Ephphatha, which means ‘be opened’, the conference organised by Evangelisation Australia was held at the recently installed Theatre at Corpus Christi College in Bateman, began with a Mass celebration and an invitation to be opened to the ‘Spirit of truth.’
Perth Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton celebrated the Mass along with concelebrant priests, Father Philip Perreau, Fr Hieu Nguyen, Fr Mark Payton, Fr Peter Meo and Deacon Bruce Talbot.
During his homily, Bishop Sproxton shared some insights on some of the theories of evolution of Science, before encouraging those present to understand how empirical sciences and the Science of faith go hand in hand.
“We ask that the Lord will help us to see the necessary connection between these two forms of knowledge – That there is a place for the scientist who observes, who analyses and who calculates.
“And there must also be the place for the prophet – The one who can give us another form of knowledge that helps us begin to look at those deeper questions of life, such as its meaning and its purpose.
Bishop Sproxton offered a prayer, asking the Lord to bless the participants throughout the conference and open up their hearts to learn much.
“Let us pray also, that we will all come to a deep and profound trust in God, who reveals the truths to them,” he concluded.
The first session was led by American Scientist, Teacher, Author and Editor Stacey Trasancos, who spoke about how her deep love for science and search for answers, had been a search for God all along.
In her talk titled ‘Particles of Faith’, Mrs Trasancos affirmed that scientists who are faced with the question of how life on this planet came to be, would not deny the existence of God, but instead acknowledge Him as a creator who is faithful.
“Scientists come to a point where they have to ask the bigger question ‘who created all of this world’, which is what led me to faith, because there is no human explanation for what we find in Science,” she said.
“We feeble humans are but looking at God’s handy work and trying to figure it out – Everything we have discovered so far, is far from being done.
“The human body and any living thing, is beyond our comprehension of any Scientists today. God knows every single chemical reaction, where the electrons are, where the gas molecules travel in our bodies – Only He knows every little thing about every little thing on this earth, because He created it all,” she added.
Catholic Apologist and Speaker Karlo Broussard, addressed the question with his talk aptly titled, ‘Is the story of Jesus a Myth.?’ while backing his facts with evidence to prove that the Gospel writers were able, intended and did write reliable history.
“There are many people who are doubting and objecting the Christian story in a variety of forms,” he stated.
It is important for us as evangelisers who are going out to make disciples of all nations, to persuade sceptics within out secular cultures that we are aware and prepared to answer the many doubts in their minds.
“The three common myths are that Jesus never existed, Jesus existed but we can’t trust what the Gospel writers said in the Bible, and finally the claim that Jesus may have existed but we can’t trust the New Testament because of recent developments and evidence that may have been found,” he added.
The first day of the conference concluded with a half an hour Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.