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World Youth Day 2008 – Pope celebrates his final Mass in Sydney

The week long celebration known as World Youth Day came to an end Sunday as more than 400,000 pilgrims packed into Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate the event’s final Mass.

It was the largest Catholic Mass ever held in Australia and, while initial expectations had been for 500,000 people, organisers said they were thrilled with the turnout with one church leader reportedly describing it as a “tsunami of faith and joy”.

Tens of thousands had camped out at the racecourse overnight to see the pontiff celebrate the culmination of the six day celebration of faith and youth. Dignitaries present included the President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, Australian Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson and New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma.

In his homily, Pope Benedict XVI asked young people whether they were building their lives on firm foundations “in the midst of a world that wants to forget God”. 

He said a new generation of Christians was being called to help build a world in which God’s “gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished – not rejected”.

The Pope said this would be a “new age” in which love was not “greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty”.

“A new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships,” he said.

“Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of His love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.”

The Pope said the world needed renewal.

“In so many of our societies, side-by-side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading, an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair,” he said.

“How many of our contemporaries have built broken and empty cisterns in a desperate search for meaning, the ultimate meaning that only love can gift. This is the great and liberating gift which the Gospel brings…”

“Do not be afraid to say ‘yes’ to Jesus, to find your joy in doing His will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others.”

Father Mark Podesta, a spokesman for World Youth Day, said it had been an “unforgettable week”.

“Both the formal celebrations and the presence of the Holy Father have allowed the joy of so many young Catholics to infiltrate our international city,” he said.

The Pope, who has announced that the next World Youth Day would be held in Madrid in 2011, flies back to Rome this morning (21st July).

Prior to his departure, having earlier made a public apology for clerical sex abuse, the Pope met with a representative group of three people who had been abused by members of the clergy and celebrated Mass with them.

www.wyd2008.org

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