World Youth Day
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
14 Oct 2007
Most people know World Youth Day will be celebrated in Sydney from 15th – 20th July, next year. Many Sydneysiders have seen the count-down clock on the west side of St. Mary’s Cathedral.
In the days immediately before W.Y.D., 50,000 + young people will journey from Melbourne to Sydney – half of them from overseas.
If they all travel by bus, separated by the regulation 150 metres, the convoy will stretch for 150 kilometres – perhaps the biggest peacetime movement of people between our two biggest capitals. Already planning has begun so that there is a sufficient number of food outlets and toilet facilities.
Therefore, next July, about 140,000 young overseas people from more than 160 nations will pack their bags and make their way to Sydney. These are the present numbers based on the group registrations, nine months before the event.
It will be the single biggest influx of people onto our shores for a single event even bigger than the Sydney Olympics.
They’re not coming for a rock concert or for a sporting contest. They are coming as pilgrims, as people of all the major religions have travelled for thousands of years; tourists with a religious purpose.
They’re coming here to join together with a similar number of young Australians to celebrate and deepen their Christian faith. It will offer the Catholic package to everyone; first of all to Catholics, but especially to young Australians who are searching for meaning.
The six days of W.Y.D. proper are preceded by the present period of preparation and there will be a follow-up programme afterwards.
As part of this preparation we opened a W.Y.D. website – wyd2008.org which attracted 8.7 million hits in September and 67 million hits since it opened, placing it in the top 10 non-commercial websites in Australia.
For many years now the Pope has sent the W.Y.D. Cross (a simple cross of wood without a figure) and an image of Mary, Jesus’ mother, around the world as a preparation for the big event. Its progress is like that of the Olympic torch.
On the first of July, around 8,000 people came out on a chilly Sunday afternoon to witness its arrival in Sydney.
Many young people waited for hours afterwards for their chance to kneel at the foot of the cross and venerate it.
The Cross and Icon are now about a third of the way into a journey around Australia, having travelled some 20,000 kilometres in 10 dioceses. Up to 150,000 young people have prayed before it already.
Last week, they were travelling through the Northern Territory on the Ghan where they will visit many indigenous communities.
And next month, they will venture into Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast. That’s what we call ‘going onto the front foot’ – what we could call a clash of cultures.
Christ provides a different set of answers.
