A day for the world courtesy of the young people of the Catholic Church

SYDNEY (SE): Religion was back in the streets of Sydney on July 19 as the figure of the crucified Christ writhed on the cross against the backdrop of an ephemeral, orange-tinged yellow sunset at Hungry Mile on the shores of Sydney Harbour. As the narrator for the one event in World Youth Day that was played out in the public arena of everyday life, announced, “He gave up his spirit,” hundreds of thousands of heads bowed around the city and people embraced the spirit.
On what the Sydney Morning Herald described as the “one good Friday” when “Sydney gave its heart to Jesus,” the true spirit of World Youth Day, a gift from the young people of the Catholic Church to the world, became a reality, as the institution of the Eucharist, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus was played out before an estimated television audience of over half-a-billion people.
In what was, without doubt, the most talked about event in the city’s trains, pubs and restaurants of the young people’s pilgrimage, 27-year-old Alfio Stutio, who played Christ, became a household name as he dragged his cross through 13 stations in the city streets to the taunts of his executors as the enthralled crowd looked on.
The murmur of the Our Father was audible in the parks, roadways and on the harbour front as the narrator led prayers intermingled among the down-to-earth examples of daily life used to illustrate the drama being played out before the eyes of the world.
It was the day that participants in World Youth Day answered their challenge and comprehensibly captured the imagination of the city, placing critics, that had dominated the media in the lead-up to the event, in the back shadows. Easily identifiable in their red, yellow and orange jackets with matching bags, their manifest joy and happy manner allowed people to respond to their presence, transforming the usually bustling streets into a festival city.
True witnesses to Pope Benedict XVI’s call to find fulfillment in places other than what he termed the myths of happiness—sex, drugs, image and money—the manifest joy of being together in the presence of the Lord as they wandered the city streets and celebrated in parks at night was on show for the whole world to see.
At the Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay complex nighttime entertainment venue, a policeman on duty described his main job as “being hugged,” adding that the tens of thousands of Youth Day participants at the music festivals, dancing and singing each night caused no problems at all. The law enforcer’s comment reinforced the response of the young people to the pope’s call to “become messengers of love in the world that can be a spiritual desert.” Just as their youthful energy reinvigorated a city, the pope said it can also reinvigorate the Church.
The adjoining Convention and Exhibition Centre also hosted nightly expos on vocation as well as a series of seminars on topics as varied as interreligious relations, earthcare, indigenous peoples and social outreaches. The giant hall of the vocation expo was crowded with young and old alike, as many sought information from the plethora of stalls set up by religious congregations, Catholic media outlets, diocesan offices, lay movements and aid groups.
People manning the booths said that on the first couple of nights visitors mostly just walked around, but on the last two were more inclined to stop and talk as well as collect leaflets and ask for more detailed information.
From the moment the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, told the 140,000 plus crowd at the opening Mass on July 15 that they were in a true sense the light of the world, until the final moment when the overnight vigil, Mass and festival finished in the gathering dusk of July 20 at Randwick Racecourse, World Youth Day was an overriding theme of Sydney life.
Daily catechesis for the 400,000 registered participants was well attended. Bishop Greg O’Kelly, from Adelaide, said that he had spoken with thousands during the week, and their responses were positive, warm and intelligent. “They participated well and joyfully,” he said. Father Jack Evans, who was part of the hosting team for delegations from Turkey and Poland, said he marvelled at the warm and easy relations young people have with their bishops. Priests on duty at the reconciliation tents set up in parks and gardens around the city also reported a steady flow of customers, but noted no one was overtaxed.
Even the cramped and Spartan-style accommodation offered to participants in schools and sports complexes around the city did not dampen spirits, with one group happily describing their digs as terrible, but laughing as they trekked off to the public showers at Coogee Beach, as there was only one for about 90 people where they were staying.
Around 700 succumbed to influenza and had to be treated at Sydney’s hospitals and crowded conditions at one school saw an outbreak of gastroenteritis, which put some out of action for a couple of days. However, even a High Court decision overruling a state government ban on irritating World Youth Day participants at registered events did not cause dismay, as young people good naturedly shouted down the handful of demonstrators who wanted to distribute condoms and others who objected to the presence of a pope in the country.
One participant was arrested for attempting to hit a demonstrator. However, that was the only ugly incident recorded in a whole week where young and old from around the world gathered under the inspiration of the spirit of God to truly become a pilgrim people of peace and fulfillment under the Southern Cross.
The pope announced that the next World Youth Day is slated for Madrid, Spain, in 2011.

 

Twenty-seven year-old actor, Alfio Stutio, portrays Jesus’ crucifixion during the way of the cross at World Youth Day on July 18 in Sydney, Australia. The stations were set at different locations across Sydney. Photo: CNS/Reuters.

Music, dance and togetherness were the order of each evening for World Youth Day participants at the nighttime entertainment venue at the Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay complex.

Theatre of the Oppressed at World Youth Day

The Philippines
Australia
Brazil

SYDNEY (Mabuhay) : “Our Columban Theatre of the Oppressed in Sydney was born out of the inspiration of a Brazilian, Augusto Boal,” said director, Anne Lanyon, at the conclusion of a presentation in the Seventh Day Adventist School in Strathfield, Sydney, on July 17.
As a bent, shadowy figure, weighed down by a huge burden, shuffled to a seat in the corner of the performance space, two performers from the Brazilian group, Cena Um, stood centre stage, bodies intertwined in the shape of a cross. “The symbol of the human cross was enfleshed in the performances of the exploitation of young people,” Lanyon explained.
As each scene was completed, the actors relieved the shadowy figure of some burden, until finally, completely freed from the things that weighed it down, it shed its baggy, black cloak, to stand in the white garment of life, as all present were invited to join in the singing of, Stand up and live in freedom.
“This shows us the hope in the cross that leads to the resurrection,” Lanyon noted. “The human cross is a marvellous tool that we can use to empower young people, not just to make them stronger, but to bring about change on behalf of those who cannot do it themselves. Just as the hope brought by the cross took away the burden from the shadowy figure, the cross can lighten the burdens that young people carry today.”
Three groups, from Brazil, The Philippines and Australia, put on a dramatic presentation in music, dance, martial arts and mime highlighting the willingness of vested interest to use the lives of the poor in the interests of personal profit.
“During World Youth Day, we wanted to challenge some of the overriding agenda of personal piety by saying that the void separating the oppressed of the world from the celebration of faith among young Catholics in Sydney this week, needs to be given a voice,” Lanyon explained. “Although huge efforts were made by Catholics in Australia to bring people from the poorer areas the Pacific, Africa, South America and Asia, the majority taking part in World Youth Day are from first world countries.”
Lanyon added, “We also wanted to make a connection with the local Aussie youth. Then, through the interest of teachers and staff at St. Peter’s Catholic High in Tuggarah, a local Sydney school, and Catholic Church Insurances Limited, which paid to bring the performing groups from overseas, our dream for World Youth Day became a reality.”
The production took 18 months in the making. “Mostly through email communication,” Lanyon explained. “But we are delighted with the result. It gives a broad picture of overt suppression of the poor in underdeveloped countries and the covert oppression that the young of the developed, wealthy world are subjected to.”
Backed up by two former students from their school, the eisteddfod group from St. Peter’s Catholic High put on a racy and imaginative presentation of the reality of sweatshops; the inadvertent acceptance of those who work in them, the brutality of those who run them; and the contrived justification of those who consume their products.
The Australian students, led by Kimberly Slade, exposed how the myths of happiness—sex, drugs, money, image and sects—which have become the new gods of the consumer society, seduce the unsuspecting youth of today, by distracting them from their true source of hope and fulfillment, the resource of the Spirit at work within their own person.
“The study of theatre of the oppressed is part of our 2008 curriculum,” said Pollyanna Forshaw, the youth ministry coordinator at St. Peter’s. A teacher, Fiona Brown, added that it has been a valuable educational tool within the school community.
The members of the Philippine contingent, from the widely travelled PREDA Akbay Group, showed a professionalism gleaned from tours in Europe and Canada as they drew the audience into the hidden realities of corporate destruction of homeland, which contributes to the ever-growing exodus of young people to the oppressive and underpaid employment situations of the migrant market.
In dance, mime and song the pain of sex trafficking, violence and ambivalence of officials became a vivid reality as the young people from the PREDA Foundation for abused children in Olongapo City told their own stories of dysfunctional family life, exploitation, slavery and sex tourism for foreigners that they have been rescued from.
“This is a reality that many Filipinos in the migrant worker market do not want to know about,” the group told Mabuhay. “We have discovered that many Filipinos living overseas do not like our work. They do not seem to want to be reminded of what is going on at home or let the outside world know about it.”
The Afro Brazilian group, Cena Um, from the predominantly black city of Salvador, told the story of the forced abduction of their people from Africa during the years of the slave trade. While many of them have their own stories to tell about discrimination due to their colour, the coordinator of the group, Australian Columban Father Colin McLean, said, “Maybe the saddest part is that none of them know from which part of Africa or which tribe their forebears come.”
To the hypnotic beat of African drums, the Cena Um told the story of the capitulation of the Zulu people, the only indigenous group to ever inflict a comprehensive defeat on a British army battalion, and their final dispersion throughout the Americas in the slave market.
In energetic dance, martial arts and Cirque de Soleil-style gymnastics, the exploitation, cruelty and human greed that robbed a continent of a third of its strongest men, laid bare the human bankruptcy it bequeathed.
“We are learning to appreciate each other through these exchanges of life history and lived, current reality,” Lanyon summarised, as she expressed admiration for the hundreds of volunteers, teachers, students and others who made the production at the Church’s biggest gathering for the year a reality.

Members of the Brazilian Cena Um put on a powerful portrayal of the deportation of black Africans in the slave trade.

The symbol of the human cross was enfleshed in the performances of the exploitation of young people.

Members of the PREDA Akbay Group celebrate with students from St. Peter’s Catholic High after their performance.

Pope stands with the young under the sign of the Southern Cross

Top, Aboriginal dancers welcome Pope Benedict XVI to Australia during a ceremony at Rose Bay in Sydney, Australia, on July 17.
Photo: CNS/Reuters.

Bottom, members of the Hong Kong delegation let out a cheer on their way through the streets of Sydney
to take part in the way of the cross on July 17.

 

SYDNEY (SE): The protocols observed at the formal arrival of Pope Benedict XVI at Sydney’s World youth Day on July 17 were received as a gift by the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia on behalf of indigenous people the world over. The first to greet him were representatives of the people who traditionally own the land on which the pontiff placed his red-slippered feet.
Although Pope Benedict had been in Australia since July 13, he did not make a formal appearance until four days later in an effort to keep a low profile and not distract attention from the presence of the hundreds and thousands of young Catholics who had gathered in the nation’s largest city for the occasion.
Prime minister, Kevin Rudd, and New South Wales state premier, Maurice Iemma, waited to give their welcome to the visiting head of the Vatican state, giving first place to the indigenous people and young representatives of the many organisations of the Catholic Church around the world.
During his greeting, the pope reflected on the beauty of the harbour he had just crossed in a luxury cruiser under the intense scrutiny of both world television and police security, with at times up to eight helicopters circling his vessel on the way from Rose Bay in the city’s east to the downtown Hungry Mile.
“Wherever we are from, we are here at last in Sydney. And together we stand in our world of God’s family, disciples of Christ, empowered by his Spirit to be witnesses of his love and truth for everyone,” the pope said in his greeting to the nation. “I am deeply moved to stand on your land, knowing the suffering and injustices it has borne,” he told the Aboriginal people who had welcomed him.
Pope Benedict prefaced his message to the young people of the world saying, “Our world has grown weary of the greed, exploitation and division, and the tedium of false gods.”
During his first days in Sydney the pope had kept a low profile, holding closed meetings with local leaders of different religions, a semi-private visit to the tomb of Australia’s only blessed, Mother Mary Mackillop, in North Sydney, and a lunch with 20 young people. Even during the highlight event of the week, the way of the cross through Sydney’s streets, he made only one brief appearance.
At a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral on July 19, Pope Benedict made an apology on behalf of the Church for the sins of sex abuse committed by its priests, religious and trusted employees. However, he postponed meeting victims face-to-face until after World Youth Day was over, in order not to confuse the agenda of the visit.
The issue had kept a high profile in the media during the week, and Chris MacIsaacs, from the Broken Rights lobby group, again complained that the pope’s action was insufficient, prompting a frustrated television interviewer to ask, “Is there anything anyone can do that you will be satisfied with?”
The evening of July 19 and the morning of July 20 was scheduled as the pope’s time with the young people at Randwick Racecourse and as the warm rays of the sun gave way to the chill of the evening breeze, over 150,000 candles glowed around the vast equine running track as representatives from different nations passed the light of the world from the pope to all present.
The next morning, the gates were opened to all-comers and almost 400,000 found their way to celebrate Mass with the pontiff before he left the course to give way to an afternoon of festival music final celebration. Sydney’s churches offered only afternoon and evening Masses.
Although overall numbers at the World Youth Day were down on expectations, they were sufficient to achieve its purpose, and young Catholics from around the world gave good witness to their faith and their ability to be joyful in its lived celebration.

Catholic officials seek permission to exhume Cardinal Newman's body

LONDON (CNS): Catholic officials have applied for permission to exhume the body of John Henry Cardinal Newman, whose cause for sainthood is expected to soon progress to beatification.
They want to transfer the remains of the 19th-century cardinal from a grave in a small cemetery in the suburbs of Birmingham, England, to a marble sarcophagus in a church in the city where they can be venerated by pilgrims.
A July 14 statement from the archdiocese of Birmingham said that it was now in direct contact with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, to obtain the necessary permission to exhume Cardinal Newman’s body.
Father Paul Chavasse, provost of the Birmingham Oratory and postulator of Cardinal Newman’s cause, said that “one of the centuries-old procedures surrounding the creating of new saints by the Catholic Church concerns their earthly remains.”
He explained in the statement that “these have to be identified, preserved and, if necessary, placed in a new setting that befits the individual’s new status in the Church.”
He said the Vatican had advised the archdiocese that this would be the normal course of action. He expressed the hope that “Cardinal Newman’s new resting place in the Oratory church in Birmingham will enable more people to come and pay their respects to him, and perhaps light a candle there.”
Father Chavasse added that he felt certain that many people would “surely wish to honour this great and holy man” and said the government decision on the exhumation was expected in the “near future.”
Cardinal Newman’s cause took a step forward in April when Vatican medical consultants ruled that an inexplicable healing in August 2001 was a result of his intercession. Deacon Jack Sullivan of Marshfield, Massachussetts, the United States of America, had been suffering from a serious spinal disorder but was cured after praying to the cardinal.......

A painting of John Henry Cardinal Newman in a church in Rome.
Photo: CNS from Crosiers

Churches in Chad, Sudan and Djibouti appeal for more priests and religious

NAIROBI (CNS): Catholic leaders in Chad, Sudan and Djibouti have appealed for more priests and religious.
John Cardinal Njue of Nairobi, president of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, said Sudanese and Chadian church officials personally wrote to him about their clergy shortages.
On June 12, during an ordination Mass of three priests in Nairobi, he said, “We are looking forward to respond to the extended request in the best way possible. We may not be self-reliant on the issue, but we definitely could share a little with others” who might not have as many priests and religious as Kenya does.
Cardinal Njue urged Kenyan priests and religious to volunteer to accept the invitation to help Sudanese and Chadian Catholics.
In an earlier e-mail to Catholic News Service, Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti said the Horn of Africa is in desperate need of Catholic pastoral services.
The bishop, who is also the apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, Somalia, said in the July 11 e-mail that Djibouti needs priests and teachers. He noted that the pastoral life in Djibouti is typical of Muslim-majority countries, where evangelisation is through service in the fields of education and of charity......

Pope assures Anglicans of prayers for Lambeth Conference

CANTERBURY (CNS): Pope Benedict XVI has assured Anglicans, meeting for their once-a-decade worldwide conference, that he and other Catholics are praying for them.
In a message to Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said the pope was “mindful that a primary objective” of the meeting was “the spiritual renewal that comes from prayer and contemplation.”
The letter noted the internal divisions troubling the Anglican Communion and said some of those issues “pose a further and grave challenge to the hope for full and visible unity that has been the long-standing goal of our joint ecumenical endeavor.”
The letter, dated June 27, was released in Canterbury on July 21, as the conference started its regular working sessions, which run through August 3. Bishops must consider the ordination of openly gay clerics, the blessing of gay unions and the ordination of women bishops in some Anglican provinces.
A quarter of the world's Anglican bishops have boycotted the conference. Some met in Jerusalem in June and called for the creation of a separate bishops' council to address what they feel is lack of action to protect traditional biblical Anglicanism........

Archbishop Rowan Williams.

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