THE RECORD SPECIAL WYD ‘08
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SOUVENIR EDITION
the Parish. the Nation. the World.
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Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper - Wednesday July 23, 2008
Youth triumph
In the face of a modern media-led culture dominated by a growing sense of emptiness, alienation and the increasing isolation of the human person, World Youth Day Oz 2008 was a wild success as 400,000 faithful including youth and pilgrims from around the world gathered at Randwick with Benedict XVI and the bishops to affirm Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life everlasting - the answer to humanity’s search for meaning in every way.
Benedict celebrates Mass with victims
■ By Michael Cook
WORLD Youth Day 2008 in Sydney was a triumph for the Catholic Church and its 81-year-old head, Pope Benedict XVI. About 400,000 people attended a final Mass on Sunday July 20, briefly making the pilgrims’ destination bigger than the nation’s capital, Canberra. By some baffled journalists it was described as a ‘Catholic Woodstock’ – the 1969 orgy of, drugs and sex and rock ‘n roll which became an iconic moment for baby-boomers. But 40 years later, the world has moved in an unexpected direction. WYD, the biggest youth event in history, is an anti-Woodstock, a repudiation of the materialism and secularism of the baby-boomers. After years of being booed offstage, the curtains have again opened and God is being greeted with tumultuous applause. As a young woman commenting the event on TV said, with unabashed confidence, it usen’t to be “trendy” to be a Catholic in Sydney, but now “it’s become cool again”. No wonder the news that Madrid will host WYD 2011 was greeted with such jubilation. The response of young people was stunning. About 125,000 pilgrims made their way from across the world, despite increased air fares and the immense distance which isolates Europe and the Americas from Australia. After months of scrimping and saving many from overseas would have spent 20 to 30 hours in the air to reach Sydney. And despite negative reports in the media and lukewarm support from many Catholic schools, they were joined by another 100,000 Australian pilgrims. On the last day, when Benedict celebrated a Mass
■ By Anthony Barich
POPE Benedict’s July 19 apology to the victims of clerical sexual abuse was underscored by a personal meeting with four of them on his last day in Australia. The Pope also celebrated Mass with the victims, a statement from the Vatican’s Press Office, announced on July 21. “As an expression of his ongoing pastoral concern for those who have been abused by members of the clergy, His
Continued - Page 2
Mary ‘will be canonised’ ■ By Anthony Barich
United: Pope Benedict XVI waves to pilgrims at the closing Mass of World Youth Day last Sunday morning. Organisers were clearly happy with the way the whole week, in the planning for three years, had come PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES, WYD off. An estimated 400,000 pilgrims were on hand for the Mass and closing ceremony, which topped off a week of public celebrations of Faith and catecheses.
at Randwick Race Course, thousands more joined them. The Vatican and Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell had planned this event as a catechesis, a teachable
moment, a festival of Catholic culture, teaching and prayer. For pilgrims who came early, dioceses around the country organised talks on controversial topics like
Catholic views on sexuality, bioethics, faith and reason. During the week immediately before there were addresses from Catholic bishops from around the globe.
In fact, one of the striking features of Sydney’s World Youth Day was how naturally Gen Y slotted into traditional aspects of Catholic devotion and doctrine which
the Woodstock generation spurned as fossilised relics of the pre-Vatican II era. Not so. During the days leading up to the climactic Mass, young
people were queuing up for the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation, or Confession, and to spend time in prayer in churches before the Eucharist.
Contined - Page 8
SISTERS of the order that Blessed Mary MacKillop founded have said that Pope Benedict XVI promised she will be canonised, but one more confirmed miracle is still needed. Media reported on July 17 that the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart took new hope from a meeting with the Pope that day after he prayed at Mary MacKillop’s shrine in North Sydney. Mary MacKillop, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995, must be documented as performing one more miracle before she is confirmed Continued - Page 3
Sydney, suspicious of being deluged by ‘square’ Catholic youth, instead fell in love
Yes: Pilgrims attend a catechesis.
REMEMBER all the bad press in the lead-up to World Youth Day? Randwick was going to close its gates to pilgrims, the government had wasted too many taxpayer dollars, pilgrims were going to annoy and most importantly, road-closures were going to
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be too much to handle. Every major media outlet had a bone to pick. I went to Sydney filled with pre-WYD media slogans and in all the confusion, pilgrims and events to attend failed to realise that the city had backflipped overnight. Suddenly I saw the Pope’s smiling face plastered across every NSW newspaper with
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Mary Mackillop - Page 3 Saturday Vigil - Pages 4-5 Closing Mass - Pages 8-9 Catechesis - Page 10 Stations of the cross - Page 11 Pope’s arrival - Page 13 Opening Mass - Page 16
slogans declaring that Sydney welcomed the Pope to its shores and even ‘loved’ him. Channel 7 declared itself the station for a comprehensive report on WYD, with Channel 9 doing the same – to name a few. Television news reporters spoke of a thriving Sydney alive with youthful exuberance. Australian media had
suddenly decided WYD was an event worth talking about and that it wasn’t as bad as they had previously declared. But it wasn’t just a media façade – Sydney welcomed pilgrims with open arms. At the Opening Mass interested onlookers lined the barricades to watch the event and did not budge throughout the entire two hours. As hordes of
AUSSIE ALL THE WAY
The opening Mass for World Youth Day, presided over by Cardinal George Pell, set the pattern for the rest of this amazing week. Page 16
pilgrims walked across busy intersections locals smiled and tooted their horns. By mid-week unregistered people were even turning up to participate in the multicultural public festivals held across the city. Suddenly Sydney residents had decided that pilgrims were not as annoying as they previously assumed. In fact
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far from being annoyed by pilgrims, some Sydney residents couldn’t get enough. Shop fronts sported an array of ‘WYD specials’ and an SBS news report spoke of pilgrims ‘buying-up big.’ Sydney had suddenly decided that it was a good decision to inject government funds into the international event. Looking back I can’t say I
expected such a turn-around in public perception, but seasoned WYD pilgrims assure me it is not the first time a country has been pleasantly surprised. Perhaps these ‘subtle’ changes are a small proportion of the many to come as secular Australia sees a side to the faith it had never before witnessed.
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Sydney was flooded by pilgrims; sometimes it seemed as if catecheses were being given in almost every language at around 250 locations across the city.
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■ By Sylvia Defendi
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