The
Catholic Weekly
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Sydney
7 December 2003
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Sydney bids for World Youth Day
Cardinal George Pell, Cardinal Edward Cassidy and Bishop Kevin Manning at the dedication Mass in the new St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta. Also pictured (at rear) is Deacon Joseph Formosa.
By Marilyn Rodrigues and Damir Govorcin
Australia’s Catholic bishops have given the green light for a Sydney bid to host international World Youth Day in 2007.
The bishops made the decision during their twice-yearly plenary meeting in Sydney.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, will now oversee the preparation of a bid to the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome.
Lyndon Cox, director of Sydney’s Catholic Youth Services, says:“This has the potential to be the biggest event this country has ever seen, drawing more people than even the Olympics.
“But we would need a lot of local support.”
If the bid is successful the bishops hope to encourage as many young Australians as possible to make the pilgrimage to Sydney and meet with as many as 150,000 young people from around the world.
The World Youth Day pilgrimage, an initiative of Pope John Paul II, has become one of the biggest international events on the Church’s calendar since it was first held in Rome in 1984.
The next World Youth Day will be held in Cologne, Germany, in 2005.
Selina Hasham, Australian national World Youth Day pilgrimage co-ordinator, says that if Sydney does receive approval to host the 2007 event it will allow faith renewal of a magnitude never before seen in this country.
Hosting a World Youth Day would be an “opportunity like no other to evangelise our own people”, she says.
Selina, who has been Australia’s delegation co-ordinator for the past few World Youth Days, has seen first hand the impact the event has on Catholic youth all over the world.
Young Australian Catholics have already demonstrated they are keen to have the event held in Sydney, with more than 5000 signatures on a petition supporting the bid.
“Each host city - and the Church - benefits from World Youth Day,” says Selina.
“It creates more Church awareness among youth and contributes to the building of a new culture.
“World Youth Day is a step in young pilgrims’ journeys of faith.
“It gives them the opportunity to experience God like they haven’t before and to come in contact with the global Church.”
Stephen Lawrence, a member of the Sydney University Catholic Chaplaincy team, has participated in past World Youth Days and has also thrown his support behind the push to bring the event to Sydney.
“It would be a grace for so many people, young and old, and a huge blessing for the city and country,” he says.
“Sydney is the most attractive city in Australia and people from all over the world would come to participate in this spectacular event.”
Earlier this year Cardinal Pell asked Lyndon Cox to co-ordinate a consultation of parishes about inviting the Pope and the world’s young Catholics to Sydney.
Lyndon gave feedback to a feasibility committee of eight people, who had the task of assessing the level of support for such an event in the archdiocese and in other dioceses around the country.
Its job was also to investigate the issues surrounding a budget, the logistics and other aspects that such an undertaking would involve, and then report to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Committee for Laity.
Cardinal Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, has been aware of Sydney as a possible location for the international event since 2001, when a team of young Australians unofficially approached him with the concept.
Cardinal Stafford visited Sydney in May.
World Youth Day in Toronto last year attracted about 500,000 Catholics from around the world.
Almost 800,000 attended the closing Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II.
Up to a million pilgrims are expected to take part in Cologne where work is under way to organise activities, liturgies, housing and transportation for pilgrims.