Photographer :
xAv @ flickr
After 13 solid years of Catholic schooling, I have become what many others have before me—a lapsed Catholic. Blame too much indoctrination or not enough nuns, but despite running the largest non-government school system in Australia, the Catholic Church just can’t seem to get its groove on when it comes to young Australians. No doubt the Church is hoping that World Youth Day, being held in Sydney from 15 to 20 July (like one loaf fed thousands, one day becomes almost a week), will attract the stubbornly wayward lambs to rejoin the flock.
This year, World Youth Day boasts many attractions. There’s Pope Benedict XVI arriving on a flotilla at Darling Harbour and the exhumed body of Italian youth Pier Giorgio Frassati on display. Pier, a tanned 24-year-old with good looks and a heart of gold, died in 1925 from polio. He has since become a role model for young Catholics and is currently in the queue for sainthood.
With an expected 125,000 ‘pilgrims’ from 176 countries joining 100,000 young Australian Catholics, World Youth Day is selling itself to Sydney as a goodwill event, a kind of sequel to the 2000 Olympics with heavenly blessings thrown in. But this isn’t like preaching to the choir, and is proving a hard sell to a city of constituents whose definition of manna from heaven is a train running on time.
As the taxpayer-funded bill keeps rising, secular Sydneysiders are becoming more unforgiving towards the event. NSW State Government funding for World Youth Day recently hit the $106 million mark, well beyond a 2005 estimate of $20 million. The Catholic Church is spending $115 million on the event, with about $75 million covered by ‘pilgrim’ fees.
The NSW Government has been criticised at length for its no-holds-barred, arms wide open response to the event, which has been personally endorsed by the many openly Christian members of NSW Parliament. It seems the separation of Church and State that we all learned about in school may not be completely clear cut. Fred Nile, of the Christian Democratic Party, talked at length in NSW Parliament about World Youth Day, saying ‘All is in order and proceeding according to plan. We need to pray for God’s blessing of this very special event in the heart of our city’. Undoubtedly the NSW State Government is also hoping the event will be an economic and public relations success.
The Greens are the only political party daring to question the open house policy of the NSW Government. NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon expressed the concerns of many NSW voters when she argued in parliament, ‘There seems to be no end to the extent to which the government will fall over itself to promote and support World Youth Day.’ To which Labor MP Eric Roozendaal heckled, ‘What would you know? You’re an atheist.’
Roozendaal may be disappointed to find that World Youth Day is not just for Roman Catholics, but is open to everyone, even atheists. However, the event is focused absolutely on religion. As well as attending frequent masses, pilgrims will take part in classes in Catholic doctrine in the mornings, including discussions about faith and life. In the afternoons, they will attend exhibitions, films, debates and workshops. There is also a ‘vocations expo’, which won’t be spruiking the usual careers of doctor, lawyer and teacher – they’ll be encouraging young people to become a Benedictine, Franciscan or Carmelite.
Clearly, the church is trying to reach out to young people. In 2007, in a message to ‘the young people of the world’, Pope Benedict XVI commented that many young people ask themselves, ‘How can we fit into a world marked by so many grave injustices and so much suffering? ... How can we give full meaning to life?’ To deal with the issues facing young people today, the Church proposes to spread ‘the gift of the Spirit of Jesus’. World Youth Day Chief Operating Officer Danny Casey says, ‘This is an opportunity for young people to explore the values in which they want to live their life.’ Yet the Church’s rigid stance on homosexuality, abortion and contraception alienates many young people who might otherwise embrace the community-based faith of Catholicism.
With an online shop selling branded memorabilia, a dead saint-to-be and a closing mass for 500,000 at Randwick Racecourse, World Youth Day is not short on bells and whistles. The event slogan, ‘Happiness – one souvenir you’ll definitely take home’, bypasses subtlety completely. The doubting Catholic in me thinks they may be promising what they can’t deliver.
Meanwhile, the NSW Government should be showing restraint, charged as they are with balancing the needs of four million Sydneysiders with 225,000 pilgrims hungry for some spiritual tourism. Whatever the politicians’ personal beliefs, they were elected by the people of New South Wales, not the Catholic Church. World Youth Day in Sydney doesn’t have to be an impossible conception. In fact, if the party was a lot less expensive and made an effort to engage young people from more diverse backgrounds, it might just be a match made in heaven.
How do I know this?
Benedictus PP XVI. 2007, ‘Message of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the young people of the world on the occasion of the XXIII World Youth Day, 2008’, 20 July,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/youth/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20070720_youth_en.html
Devine, Frank. 2008, ‘Fret not, the pilgrimage is bound to be a moving affair’, The Australian, 19 April,
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23556373-31501,00.html
Grey, Tim. 2008, ‘The cost of coercion’, Vibewire, 21 April,
http://www.vibewire.net/Members/nationaled/my-articles/the-cost-of-coercion-world-youth-day-2008/view
Larter, Paul. 2008, ‘Pope caught in row over who should pay for Australia visit’, The Times (UK), 22 April,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/
article3792430.ece
McCarthy, Anthony. 2008, ‘Benedictions on our fair city’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April,
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/benedictions-on-our-fair-city/2008/04/27/1209234649889.html
Mills, Jennifer. 2008, ‘Who’s Paying for World Youth Day?’, New Matilda, 27 March,
http://newmatilda.com/2008/03/27/whos-paying-world-youth-day
Morris, Linda. 2008, ‘Iemma warned of poor return from Youth Day’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 May, pg.8.
Morris, Linda. 2008, ‘Welcome to God’s mosh pit’, The Sydney Morning Herald (News Review), 25-27 April,
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/
2008/04/24/1208743154317.html
New South Wales Government. 2008, World Youth Day Co-ordination Authority,
http://www.wydca.nsw.gov.au/
Parliament of New South Wales. 2007, World Youth Day Amendment Bill 2007 (transcript),
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/
hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LC20071205044
Powell, Sian. 2008, ‘World Youth Day to cost taxpayers $160m’, The Australian, 22 April,
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23578255-5013404,00.html
Price, Sarah. 2008, ‘Costs, closures turn masses off big event’, The Sun Herald, 27 April, pg.29.
World Youth Day. 2008, WYD08,
http://www.wyd2008.org
