The Good News of Jesus Christ

Pope Benedict XVI is in Australia.

Pope Benedict XVI - his official message

July 13, 2008 12:13am

YOU will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8)

THE grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Today, I shall begin my Apostolic Visit to your country, in order to celebrate the Twenty-Third World Youth Day in Sydney.

I very much look forward to the days that I shall spend with you, and especially to the opportunities for prayer and reflection with young people from all over the world.

First of all, I want to express my appreciation to all those who have offered so much of their time, their resources and their prayers in support of this celebration.

The Australian Government and the State Government of New South Wales, the organisers of all the events, and members of the business community who have provided sponsorship - all of you have willingly supported this event, and on behalf of the young people taking part in the World Youth Day I thank you most sincerely.

Many of the young people have made great sacrifices in order to undertake the journey to Australia, and I pray that they will be rewarded abundantly.

The parishes, schools and host families have been most generous in welcoming these young visitors, and they, too, deserve our thanks and our appreciation.

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

This is the theme of the Twenty-Third World Youth Day: how much our world needs a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

There are still many who have not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, while many others, for whatever reason, have not recognised in this Good News

the saving truth that alone can satisfy the deepest longings of their hearts.

The Psalmist prays: "When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the Earth" (Ps 104:30).

It is my firm belief that young people are called to be instruments of that renewal, communicating to their peers the joy they have experienced through knowing and following Christ, and sharing with others the love that the Spirit pours into their hearts, so that they, too, will be filled with hope and with thanksgiving for all the good things they have received from our heavenly Father.

Many young people today lack hope. They are perplexed by the questions that present themselves ever more urgently in a confusing world, and they are often uncertain which way to turn for answers. They see poverty and injustice, and they long to find solutions.

They are challenged by the arguments of those who deny the existence of God and they wonder how to respond. They see great damage done to the natural environment through human greed, and they struggle to find ways to live in greater harmony with nature and with one another.

Where can we look for answers?

The Spirit points us towards the way that leads to life, to love and to truth. The Spirit points us towards Jesus Christ.

There is a saying attributed to Saint Augustine: "If you wish to remain young, seek Christ."

In him, we find the answers we are seeking, we find the goals that are truly worth living for,

we find the strength to pursue the path that will bring about a better world.

Our hearts find no rest until they rest in the Lord, as Saint Augustine says at the beginning of the Confessions, the famous account of his own youth.

My prayer is that the hearts of the young people who gather in Sydney for the celebration of World Youth Day will truly find rest in the Lord, and that they will be filled with joy and fervour for spreading the Good News among their friends, their families, and all whom they meet.

Dear Australian friends, although I will be able to spend only a few days in your country, and I will not be able to travel outside Sydney, my heart reaches out to all of you, including those who are sick or in difficulties of any kind.

On behalf of all the young people, I thank you again for your support of my mission and

I ask you to continue praying for them especially.

It remains only for me to renew my invitation to the young people from all over the world

to join me in Australia, the great "southern land of the Holy Spirit".

I look forward to seeing you there! May God bless you all.

Link:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24010006-5016937,00.html

(From left:) Octavio Pachero from Mexico, Rodrigo Hermel and Katiane Hermel from Brazil, Enrique Ortiz from Mexico, Sharmini Ann Xavier from Malaysia and Alonso Fierro from Mexico - WYD08 Pilgrims from around the world are gathering in Sydney for World Youth Day. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Decisive Benedict the Pope the world needs

By John Heard

July 13, 2008 12:01am

AS one would expect of the leader of a billion Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI is a leading theologian, one of the major thinkers of our age.

But he is also a sharpshooter - the kind of man who can explain complex ideas in simple ways, and then act decisively.

People everywhere welcome his gifts. As a young Catholic studying in a modern university where relativism and other intellectual trends pushed against Christian truth, beauty and goodness- I often found Benedict to be speaking directly to those who wanted to push back.

But even non-Catholics have something to learn from him.

Benedict regularly describes, for instance, how the secular West can overcome some of the more alienating aspects of modern living, and he is not afraid to engage the Church's critics.

In his papal writings, then, Benedict has quoted atheist thinkers such as Nietzsche and Marx, and used their criticisms of false belief and an unjust society to show how Christian love and hope can transform contemporary lives.

Indeed, on a recent trip to the United States, Benedict surprised even his most ardent critics, using his public speeches and private meetings to heal wounds caused by some priests' abuse of children.

Further, Benedict's 2006 comments on religion and violence have already transformed the direction of the debate on terrorism. His speech in Germany resulted in some violent reactions, but the Pope - who later travelled to Turkey - was credited with defusing serious tensions.

Even those who might baulk at Catholic teaching on human sexuality and politics will find Benedict an honest and insightful guide.

People seeking alternatives to over-commercialisation, hyper-sexualisation, and degrading events like the Sydney Mardi Gras, will find World Youth Day calls them to something radically different.

It was Benedict who wrote his first papal encyclical on love, and it is Benedict who has situated sex and other flashpoint topics within an account of human nature that emphasises man's capacity for compassion, solidarity, family and love.

The themes of his leadership for Catholics are clear.

On the so-called "reform of the reform", the important debate on how Catholics evaluate changes to the Mass since Vatican II, Benedict has called for a return to beauty.

He is keen, on paper, to promote an organic development from tradition, derived from what he calls a "hermeneutic of continuity".

Converting ideas into action, however, Benedict has restored the altar arrangement in St Peter's Basilica, a site that attracts relentless attention, and he now regularly wears historical vestments to show that Christian worship today is linked with Christian worship throughout the ages.

Benedict means the end, then, of any post-Vatican II confusion. On signal Catholic issues, he has moved with decisiveness, and great wisdom.

Everywhere he goes he communicates with authority. He is just the Pope the world needs.

John Heard is a 26-year-old Melbourne writer. http://johnheard. blogspot.com

Link:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24008781-5007146,00.html

The cross on its way through the CBD from Circular Quay.
Photo: Nick Moir

Pope's smitten with a kitten

July 14, 2008 12:01am

OF all Pope Benedict's loyal followers in Australia, little Bella has every right to feel like the cat that got the cream.

The 11-month-old grey tabby kitten has been brought in to make the pontiff feel at home during his three-day stay at Kenthurst in NSW.

It will ease any bout of homesickness the pontiff would have felt being away from his most beloved of pets.

The Pope's love of stray cats is legendary in the Vatican, and his house in Germany is filled with cats and guarded by a cat statue.

Catherine Lennon said the Opus Dei followers at the Kenthurst Study Centre brought Bella into the retreat to keep the Pope company while he played the piano.

A talented musician and Mozart fan, the Pope will have access to a baby grand piano in a room decorated with paintings of Australian landscapes.

With no TV or extravagances, he will have a time to get to know his new friend.

Herald-Sun

The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul in North Melbourne held a service with 240 pilgrims, 8 bishops and 20 priests from all over the world including Canada and Amercia in preperation for World Youth Day in Sydney.

Pope to relight fire of faith

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large | July 14, 2008

AT the start of his first visit to Australia, Pope Benedict XVI has declared his optimism about Christianity's future in this country, signalling a mission to combat religious indifference and disenchantment.

"I am, finally, an optimist," he said on his flight from Rome in response to a question from The Australian about religious apathy in his host country. "Now at this historical moment we begin to see that we need God."

Such optimism contrasts with the Pope's pessimism about the Australian church in 2005 when he said the "so-called 'great' churches seem to be dying" and that this "is true particularly in Australia".

Pivotal to the Pope's visit will be the wording of the apology over sexual abuse within the church, an apology he foreshadowed at his press briefing en route.

The Pope arrived in Australia yesterday for this week's World Youth Day events on board an Alitalia Boeing 777, which touched down at Richmond RAAF base, northwest of Sydney, at 3pm.

The 81-year-old pontiff was greeted on the tarmac by a delegation headed by Cardinal George Pell, who won the event for the city, self-declared Christian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Morris Iemma.

On the plane, the Pope signalled his hope that World Youth Day - expected to draw local and overseas crowds of up to 500,000 - would represent not just a week of enthusiasm but a longer-run religious awakening for Australia.

That is a daunting task.

"Many young people today lack hope," he said, adding that they were perplexed by the problems of a confusing world.

During his meeting with the media shortly after takeoff, the Pope said the world had reached an "historical moment" where signs of faith and belief were returning and taking new forms.

He saw the situation of the Australian Catholic Church against a backdrop where he said "there is a crisis in Europe (but) not so much in America".

Pope Benedict seemed fully aware that his visit came at a decisive time for Australia's church, poised between sinking into European decline or discovering a means of renewal.

"Australia in its historical configuration is part of the Western world," the Pope said. "The West over the past 50 years has seen great success, economic and technological success. But religion has been relegated."

Conceding the extent of the church's crisis, he said people asserted "that we do not need God, we do not need God to be happy, we do not need God to create a better world. God is not necessary."

Yet this was a flawed view because "God is basically in the hearts of human beings and can never disappear". In the world today, faith was present "in new forms and in new ways". There was an awareness that people could not find justice and happiness by abandoning God. He described World Youth Day as a celebration of faith "that crosses borders and unites people".

Asked about the apology over sexual abuse, the Pope said: "It is essential for the church to reconcile, to help prevent (abuses). I will say essentially the same thing as I said in America (during a visit in April). We have three dimensions to clarify - what was insufficient in our behaviour, how we can prevent (re-occurrences) and how we heal and reconcile.

"The first dimension is our moral teaching. We must be clear about what has always been clear from the first centuries, pedophiles cannot be priests, it is incompatible. The church's teaching has always been very clear about these things."

The Pope said that in the 1950s, 60s and 70s the idea of proportionality arose in relation to these issues, but "this was never Catholic doctrine". He said pedophilia was always wrong and priests needed to be involved in the healing process. "We will help the education and preparation of priests," he said. "We will do all that is possible to heal and to reconcile to the victims. This is the essential context of what I will say (as we) apologise."

Asked about climate change and the G8 heads of government meeting, the Pope said climate change was relevant in the context of World Youth Day.

"We are talking about creation and our responsibility for creation" he said. But he declined to comment on the technical or policy aspects.

He looked joyful when he stepped on to the tarmac at Richmond RAAF base, offering a brief wave and a smile.

He exchanged warm greetings with Mr Rudd, before meeting MrIemma and allowing Cardinal Pell to kiss the papal ring on his right hand.

He was then ushered away for a meeting with local clergy members before his motorcade left theairbase.

The pontiff will spend the next four nights at an Opus Dei-run study centre at Kenthurst on Sydney's northwestern outskirts.

His official WYD program begins on Thursday.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24014867-601,00.html