The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
7 December 2003
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Sydney bids
for World Youth Day
Biggest rally of young people
Principals rang bells of change in schools
Abandoned by her dad, Dina finds a caring home in a village of poverty
A new St Pat’s: the
wait is over
A diary that caters for Catholic needs
Help for newcomers
Caritas emergency food aid to E Timor
Survival guide
How to help the refugees
Evening group
Editorial: Boost for youth
Letters: Wonderful memories
Conversation: Ted Collins, Bishop of Darwin - Souls to be saved, not locked up
Making
time for Advent
When in Rome do as the ...
Poor Clares’ rich history
Fidelity, respect, chastity
Times were a-changing
Holy Land ‘holiest of all’
Editorial: Boost for youth
SOMETIMES it is easy to overlook the fact that Our Lord was a young man when he began his public ministry and when he died for us on the Cross.
Yet when we read the Gospels we discover a man in touch with and at ease with young people - he empathised with the young, he attracted and appealed to youth and at one stage even chastised older followers for denying children access to him.
Jesus is the greatest role model for all ages but he is particularly so for the young. His message of love and forgiveness, compassion and peace resonates in the hearts of youth.
In 1978 Pope John Paul II made young people a priority; just six years later he instituted World Youth Day, an occasion which brings hundreds of thousands of young Catholics together to celebrate their faith.
The series of gatherings, held every two or three years in different cities of the world, has been a great success, in fact an inspiration for all.
Our own city of Sydney now has the chance of hosting World Youth Day 2007 after the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference threw its support behind a bid for the occasion.
Given the city’s success in staging such events as the Olympic Games and the Rugby World Cup, hosting up to 150,000 young pilgrims from all over the world would present us with another welcome challenge.
But World Youth Day is more than just a celebration and affirmation of our Catholicism for young people, it is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to renew the faith in all of us.
Shortly after the last gathering in Toronto last year, Bishop Francois Lapierre of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, said the “spiritual fruit” of World Youth Day had already begun to permeate through Canadian dioceses.
“There is a new communion between the Church and youth," he said.
Everyone, including the Pope, recognises that the future lies in the hearts and hands of the young.
Sydney’s bid deserves our support and our prayers.