Pies, Footy And Prayer As Pilgrims Converge On Cities

The Age

Monday July 7, 2008

Barney Zwartz, Religion Editor

IT TOOK 48 exhausting hours for Valentine Obregon to reach Melbourne from Guatemala on Saturday, but it didn't take long for him to enjoy a slice of local life, watching the "physical prowess and courage" of the Collingwood and Sydney AFL players with astonishment.

For Rodrigo, 26, exposure to local life took the form of the meat pie and Vegemite sandwiches his host family - Robert Webb, Geraldine Butler and their children - were eager to give him for lunch yesterday. And he was eager to try it, wondering if the pie might contain kangaroo.

The pair were two of 120 Guatemalans who have come to Melbourne for Days in the Dioceses, a four-day festival for young Catholics starting on Thursday and leading up to World Youth Day and Mass with Pope Benedict in Sydney on July 20. They are joining 28 young people from Chile, 450 from Vietnam, 800 from the Philippines, 2500 from France and 3000 from Germany - 25,000 in all from 85 countries, who will then join 12,000 young Melbourne Catholics for the bus trip up the Hume Highway to see the Pope in Sydney.

Every Australian diocese is hosting a Days in the Dioceses festival before World Youth Day, but Melbourne - the biggest diocese in Oceania, with more than 1 million Catholics - is staging the most ambitious outside Sydney.

Billeted with 7000 host families from nearly every parish, the young pilgrims will see the sights, make a lot of friends, and combine spiritual pursuits with concerts, multicultural events and a giant Mass at the Telstra Dome on Friday (the 50,000-seat stadium has been booked out).

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says the faith festival will encourage both the visiting pilgrims and the locals. "The whole city is energised by these extraordinary young people, full of life, and it helps us to stop and think about the lots of good things happening in the world rather than concentrating on the problems," he said yesterday.

Among visitors to the city are six cardinals, 100 bishops and 1000 priests. They include Cardinal Wilfred Napier from South Africa, who has been involved in negotiations about Zimbabwe's political crisis, and Galilee Archbishop Elias Chacour, the Middle East peace activist who was nominated for a Nobel peace prize.

Many Catholic religious groups are having their own Melbourne events: several hundred Eastern Rite Catholics are coming from the Ukraine, the De La Salle brothers are sponsoring 500 disadvantaged youth for a four-day conference, and the Neo-Catechumenate is hosting 2000 pilgrims.

For Days in the Dioceses Melbourne organiser Mark O'Connor, the logistics have proved something of a nightmare. He has a team of 60 volunteers who are meeting every pilgrim at the airport. "How people are received when they arrive in a country is very important," he said. "If it's a warm welcome and people are friendly, it colours your whole experience."

Brother O'Connor said the festival involved the biggest transport movement in the history of events in Victoria: 910 vehicles, 1.4 million kilometres, more than 400 volunteers, and 280,000 litres of petrol. Moving pilgrims to Sydney will take more than 400 buses, plus 60 trucks and 170 vans to carry 300 tonnes of luggage that has to be bar-coded.

In Sydney the scale increases again, with more than 125,000 international visitors registered and 500,000 people expected to hear the Pope say Mass at Randwick racecourse.

THE PAPAL VISIT

These are the events at which pilgrims and public can see the Pope in Sydney.

SUNDAY, JULY 13

9.15am Arrives Darwin from Rome. Arrives Richmond airforce base, 3pm.

THURSDAY, JULY 17

9am Welcome at Government House, including papal speech.

9.45am Visit to Mary MacKillop Chapel.

10.05: Meets Governor- General and Prime Minister at Admiralty House.

2.20pm: Indigenous welcome, Rose Bay Wharf FRIDAY, JULY 18 10.30am: Meets Christian leaders St Mary's Cathedral Crypt.

12.30pm: Lunch with young people, St Mary's Cathedral House reception hall.

6.45pm: Meets disadvantaged young people, University of Notre Dame.

SATURDAY, JULY 19

9.30am: Mass with Australian bishops and seminary students St Mary's Cathedral.

7pm: Evening vigil at Southern Cross precinct key papal speech.

SUNDAY, JULY 20

845am Papal helicopter flight over Southern Cross precinct.

9.15am: Travel by Popemobile from Victoria Barracks heliport to Randwick Racecourse.

10am: Final Mass.

MONDAY, JULY 21

8.35am: Farewell from St Mary's Cathedral House.

8.45am: Travel by Popemobile from cathedral to Sydney Domain and thank-you event for youth day volunteers.

9.30am: Farewell, ceremony, Sydney airport.

© 2008 The Age

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