World Youth Day Comes to Sydney
Tuesday July 15, 2008
More than 125,000 visitors — more than the number of those who came to Sydney for the Olympic Games in 2000 — were estimated to have arrived in Sydney for World Youth Day 2008.The six-day celebrations began on July 15, local time, and came to a close on the actual World Youth Day itself on July 20.
Organised by the Catholic Church, World Youth Day brought together young people from around the world to celebrate their faith.
It also marked the first visit to Australia of Pope Benedict XVI who arrived at Sydney's Richmond RAAF Military Air Base airport on July 13.
World Youth Day 2008 culminated in a final Mass celebrated by the Pope on July 20 at Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse. The Mass is typically the largest event of World Youth Day celebrations and, overseas, had drawn millions of people.
The most recent World Youth Days on the international level, prior to the Sydney event, were held in Cologne, Germany, in 2005 and in Toronto, Canada, in 2002. Madrid, Spain, and Rio de Janeiro or Belo Horizante, Brazil, were among the cities vying to hold the next international World Youth Day, possibly in 2011.
World Youth Day was begun by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and has already been held in Rome, Argentina, Spain, Poland, the United States, the Philippines, France and, more recently, Canada and Germany.
The influx of large numbers of visitors to Sydney, and the need for security measures, caused congestion in various Sydney areas and affected traffic movements.
While World Youth Day is a Catholic event, it is open to all people regardless of creed. Photo: Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany © WYD 2008
Comments
One thing I would like to see during the Pope’s visit for WYD is for the Holy Father to act upon the recommendations of his own Bishop’s with regard to Robert Mugabe.
The world rejoiced when the Pope refused to meet Mugabe whilst he was attending the Food conference in Rome but more can and should be done by the Father to indicate the Church’s disgust at the atrocities committed by thugs in Mugabe’s name.
Mike - 74, Angela - 70 and Ben Campbell taken from their farm and horribly tortured…..Joshua Bakacheza tortured to death…..and so on….pictures too confronting to publish, too reminiscent of Hitler’s death camps.
Time for the Pope to tell the world’s pilgrims, many of whom are from Africa, that this madness cannot be tolerated by the Church or the world, an opportunity for him to lead the way, an opportunity for him to publicly shame Mugabe and ex-communicate him from the Catholic Church.
That would make this Australian WYD meaningful and memorable.
R.I.P. Joshua