Let’s Meet in Sydney!

IT IS SAID that Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures is best celebrated as a communal act of worship. If this is the case, then World Youth Day 2008 will be the single biggest Canticle given to God in the history of Australia. So says Father Paul Smith, OFM, Vicar Provincial of the Province of the Holy Spirit that includes Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.



Fr. Smith says that in his Canticle, Francis stressed the importance of praising God not only for all that is good, but for all that lies between life and death. “A canticle is not meant to be said or sung alone, it is a hymn or chant to be used during praise and worship,” Fr. Smith said.



Indeed, there is much to be thankful for in the 200 years since the First Fleet arrived in Australia from England in 1788, the year widely considered the birth of Australia; though Aboriginal Australians had been here for thousands of years prior. And when it hosts WYD it will join an exclusive club, becoming only the third nation outside Italy to have been visited by each of the three ‘travelling’ Popes – Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI. The other two countries being the United States and Turkey.





Moribund Christianity



Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney who lobbied hard for Australia to host WYD 2008, said Australian society has been living off Christian principles for two centuries, and is still, despite the opinions of some elite, a Christian country whose major social, political and legal institutions cannot be fully understood without it.



Cardinal Pell’s Dominican Auxiliary Bishop, Anthony Fisher, the chief organizer of WYD 2008, says Pope Benedict XVI likely chose Australia as its host in part because secularization has taken hold of that land like few other Western countries.



This became clear when Pope Benedict told a gathering of priests in 2005, while on holiday in the Italian Alps shortly after he announced Sydney would host WYD 2008, that people in the Western world felt self-sufficient, with less need for Christ and Christianity, and this is a suffering linked to the present situation where “mainstream churches appear moribund. This is so in Australia, above all.”



However, Cardinal Pell told Australia’s National Press Club in September 2005 that “with our enthusiasm and optimism we are not fertile ground for the ‘dictatorship of relativism’, but are rich in spiritual and especially moral potential,” Cardinal Pell said.



“This could be one reason why Pope Benedict nominated Sydney to host the World Youth Day in 2008.”





Bringing God out



Bishop Fisher said that the German hosts from WYD 2005 in Cologne told him that first and foremost the event “brought God out in public for the first time”. With very public events like a powerful and prayerful re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross, and a Youth Festival that includes a Vocations Expo, public debate, Reconciliation, Adoration, music, performing arts, visual art exhibitions, film, community gatherings, street performers and workshops, Sydney will be transformed into a virtual outdoor cathedral.



No longer, Bishop Fisher says, will having an active and passionate faith be an ‘embarrassing little secret’ that many Australian youth are afraid to share with their friends.



“Religion has been privatized; there is a feeling that you should keep religion to yourself, almost something you’re embarrassed or ashamed about,” Bishop Fisher said.



“But, as happened after Cologne, by the final day of WYD in Sydney, something like 200,000 young people will be excited by their faith; and by the time the Pope says the final Mass on the Sunday, there could be half a million saying very publicly that God matters to them.



“I think many young people are still very idealistic, still want to build a better world and want to be a part of that happening, and part of what the young pilgrims will see in Australia is a young Church, full of people just like them, being a part of something that does have some answers to their big questions, because it has Christ at the centre of it.



“Today’s youth are sick of the materialism and secularism that has consumed the next generation up, and WYD could be a huge help to these youth.”



There is plenty of inspiration for Australian Catholics, not least of which is the roughly 125,000 international pilgrims set to descend on their shores to share their catechesis with them centred around the workings of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the theme the Pope chose for WYD – Acts 1:8, the last thing Jesus said to His Apostles before ascending to the Father:



“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses”.





No magic involved



Though the Holy Spirit will be an active participant in WYD 2008, Bishop Fisher says the event is “not magic”.



“It’s not like overnight [Australia’s Catholic youth] will become saints, martyrs and apostles. For some, WYD will be a bit of fun, but won’t move them deeply. But I truly believe that for a lot more it will be a time they’ll ask the big questions in their lives, like ‘how does God fit into my life’, and they will be encouraged by thousands of others their age from around the world, and they will be ready to take this into their work, study and family life.



“It won’t just be ‘a funny, slightly embarrassing thing about me, that I’m more religious that my peers, that I like to pray or go to Mass or I want to live the Ten Commandments’. They will have the confidence to feel quite upfront about their faith.



“Talk to people who’ve come back from previous World Youth Days and they saw they weren’t alone or weird by caring about God and wanting to live God’s will; they come back confident to take on the world”.





Come to the Water



In the past, Franciscans in the hosting nation of WYD have made it possible for Franciscan pilgrims to share and celebrate their Catholic faith in the context of their Franciscan spirituality. Continuing in this tradition of Franciscan WYD hospitality, the Province of the Holy Spirit is hosting a three-day event in Brisbane, Queensland, from July 10-13 specifically open for Franciscan pilgrims, one week prior to the main event in Sydney from July 15-20.



The July 10-13 event is part of Days in the Diocese, a Catholic festival run around Australia to welcome international pilgrims and acclimatize them culturally and spiritually for WYD in Sydney.



Franciscan events will continue in Sydney, and all are once again invited to make the most of our services; special events, catechetical programs and simple places of quiet prayer are all on offer. In particular, a Franciscan Festival is planned for Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on July 16, called Come to the Water (from Isaiah 55:1).



Headlining the massive day will be Franciscan Friars of the Renewal rapper, Father Stan Fortuna from the South Bronx, along with popular Catholic American songwriter Matt Maher’s band, whose music has already inspired youth ministries across Australia.



Franciscan Cardinal Wilfred Napier, OFM, Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, will share a talk on the power of baptism and how it unifies Christians.





Catholic bikies





God Squad, an interdenominational motorcycle club that features ‘bikies’ so iconic in Australian and American culture, will also appear at Bondi, and its New South Wales state president Dave Hansen will give his testimony of how he converted to Catholicism from the Uniting Church after seeing Pope John Paul II during his visit to Australia in 1986, an event that triggered a massive faith renewal in Australia.



Samuel Clear, the young man featured in the February 2008 edition of this magazine, as well as on page 5 of the June 2008 issue, discussing his Walk 4 One project, whereby he literally walked around the world urging Christians to join him in prayer for Christian unity, will give his testimony to an expected 12,000 people at Bondi – the culmination of his epic journey.



Fr. Smith says that the hope is to promote Christian unity and strengthen the faith of young people by coming together in the name of justice and peace while being welcoming of both our local Jewish and Muslim communities. In hosting this event the Friars will draw on friendships from the various cultural, religious, educational, business and sporting groups in the local community.



“It is our hope that the youth experience the very special differences in Franciscan Culture, whilst celebrating the very special unity in Franciscan Spirituality. In this spirit we welcome you ‘down under’ to our great nation Australia, the land beneath the Southern Cross, ‘The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit’”.





Generation Y



In this way the Franciscans will help WYD achieve what Bishop Fisher has been praying for – to strengthen the connection of youth with Christ and His Church.



“We’ve seen (Australian) studies like the Spirit of Generation Y (those born between 1978 and 1994) that says almost half of them don’t consciously identify with a religion or Church; and even those that do only come very rarely to a church to worship,” Bishop Fisher said.



“We hope that WYD will strengthen young people’s connection with Christ and His Church, to tell them here is the place where you will find the big answers to your questions in life”.



He says international pilgrims attending WYD 2008 will find Australia is a very hospitable country.



“Already, volunteers that have come from the world have talked about how hospitable we are. They are astonished by the beauty of this country, its stunning geography that will be the backdrop to the spiritual events at WYD,” he said.



“They’ll meet something of our spiritual history. We’re a young Church compared to where they come from, and that gives us a certain energy and youthfulness. They’ll find here too what a multicultural society we are, as they’ll find people from their land already here.



“We’ve built a country that is really Catholic in the sense of including everybody, and that’s something I don’t think they’ll have seen before, as countries are often mainly of one particular culture. That will impress them, and will show them the capacity of Christianity to bring people together like that”.





The lucky country



Bishop Fisher finds it sadly ironic that a nation that often refers to itself as “the lucky country” with a solid democracy and so many opportunities, “yet at the same time we have youth issues like high suicide rates, drug taking, disoriented about their values and lot of hurting and damaged people”.



“Homelessness and despair is a real challenge for Australia, and while these things are more obvious when a society faces an obvious oppression like Communism,secularism and consumerism come with a very attractive face as they have some Christian sides to them. They say we want you to be happy and comfortable, and they’re not bad, but you very easily get seduced into thinking that all that matters is getting more possessions or experiences. But there’s no satisfaction in that, it doesn’t answer people’s needs.



“We’re tying to get youth to not just be comfortable and do the ‘lazy Aussie thing’, but to see that if they want real happiness then they’ll have to ask some hard questions, to commit to Jesus Christ and His Church, and that’s the way they’ll do some really great things in their lives”.