AUSTRALIA is preparing for the biggest international gathering since the 2000 Olympics after Pope Benedict XVI announced last Sunday that World Youth Day 2008 will be held in Sydney.
Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement after the final Mass at this year’s World Youth Day.
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney said he was delighted with the decision.
Cardinal Pell, the driving force behind the bid, led a five-member team from Sydney to Rome in early July to present the Australian bid to the Vatican.
He said it was a great privilege to have World Youth Day entrusted to the Church in Australia.
Australian Catholic Students Association (ACSA) president Daniel Hill said “we can’t keep the smile off our faces”.
The ACSA has pledged to work with Cardinal Pell to “organise the biggest rally of tertiary students ever seen in Australia”.
President Daniel Hill said a major element of the student association’s mission over the coming years would be to build up to World Youth Day and use it as a major impetus for evangelisation.
The Sydney bid was supported by both the Federal Government and the NSW Government and Cardinal Pell paid tribute to all who had helped make the bid a success.
NSW Tourism Minister Sandra Nori was in Cologne as a member of the Sydney observation team and said the event was uplifting.
Prime Minister John Howard congratulated Cardinal Pell on the successful bid and said his Government would work with the Archdiocese of Sydney and the NSW Government to make World Youth Day a memorable event.
World Youth Day 2008 will be held from July 15-20.
