AUSTRALIAN Catholics supporting Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) have opened their hearts and wallets to the tune of $400,000 to help 1000 youth from poor and oppressed countries around the world attend World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney this week.
The donations to the Catholic charity have helped pay travel expenses for youth from such poverty stricken areas as East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Cuba, Sudan and what is believed to be the smallest Catholic community in the world – Turkmenistan.
A group of about 60 indigenous youth from the Wadeye community in the Northern Territory have also been funded to attend.
National ACN director Philip Collignon said the “extremely generous response” had resulted from an advertising campaign conducted in the religious press throughout Australia.
He also praised ACN’s 20,000 regular benefactors.
“This has been a marvellous campaign,” he said.
“Without such a generous financial assistance, youth from these poor and oppressed countries would not be able to respond to the Pope’s invitation for all the youth of the world to attend World Youth Day.”
Mr Collignon said the ACN had sponsored youth ever since WYD was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1984.
“In WYD in Cologne in 2005 the support of benefactors meant, for example, that a very significant youth delegation from Sudan attended,” he said.
“They returned home to spread the good news of their meeting with other youth from around the world.
“The presence of 1000 youth in Sydney from under-privileged countries will also help spread the Good News when they return.”
ACN will also have a stand at the Vocations Expo at WYD08 to present information on the pastoral charity including its goal of training 16,000 seminarians from around the world.
