WYD Day Five recap

The opening Mass for World Youth Day takes place during sunset over Darling Harbor (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Downtown Sydney shines at night from the media ferry after the opening Mass. (Herald photo by Bill Howard)

After an early breakfast (6:15 a.m.) and morning prayer, the Colorado Springs/Las Vegas group had a free day until 4:30 p.m., when they would head to Barangaroo park at Darling Harbor to join more than 100,000 people for the opening Mass.

Some pilgrims checked out the various World Youth Day festival sites. An outdoor concert went on throughout the afternoon, the Sydney Exhibition Center had a monster vocations fair with a coffee bar and performance stage where Catholic musicians (including some religious order choirs) can perform throughout the week. At Hyde Park, there were tons of tents that will be used for catechetical sessions, confessions, WYD merchandise and eating. Nearby is the huge, beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral, where the body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati lies after being flown down from Turin, Italy, for public viewing. Blessed Frassati has become a model for youth because he devoted his brief life to defending the Catholic Church and devoting much of his time to the poor. He died at age 24 after contracting polio from a sick woman he was visiting. Blessed Frassati was an avid hiker whose motto was “verso l’alto” (“ever upward”), and his witness was embraced by Pope John Paul II, who was also an avid outdoorsman as a youth.

Chuck Maher, his son Evan and I spent a couple of hours taking a ferry from the Sydney Opera House to the city of Manly about 30 minutes away. It was a beautiful, sunny ride in the harbor that allowed us to chat with many locals (as well as some young adults from Glenwood Springs -- Colorado is well-represented here) and gave us magnificent views of the opera house, of the Pacific Ocean and of Sydney in general. When we arrived at Manly, it was packed with pilgrims who quickly headed toward the beach to eat, walk on the sand and watch surfers.

After returning to Sydney, I had to register at the International Media Center, where I’d be setting up shop regularly throughout the week. After staying there for an hour and getting situated, we had to shuffle to a ferry that took us to a dock near the stage for the opening Mass. After snapping a quick picture of Bishop Sheridan as he stood with a couple hundred bishops waiting to process to the altar, I had to snake my way through the crowd to the media viewing area.


The Mass was magnificently staged against the sunset over Darling Harbor. Thousands of flags waved throughout the crowd and a pre-Mass concert helped settle everyone into a prayerful mood. Sydney Cardinal George Pell was the main celebrant, and his homily was quite moving. While acknowledging the excited, zealous pilgrims among him, he also reached out to “anyone, anywhere who regards himself or herself as lost, in deep distress, with hope diminished or even exhausted.” He challenged those struggling with their faith to hang in there and stay faithful, and he echoed Pope Benedict XVI with a challenge to not accept moral relativism in society.

After Mass, our pilgrim group headed to Pizza Hut for dinner (I had to venture back to the media center instead) before returning to the hotel to crash. During that time, a huge concert took place on a lower stage in front of the altar. Many of the pilgrims who attended Mass stayed for the show, which included everything from sacred music to contemporary to Aboriginal songs. The show ended with a magnificent fireworks display over the harbor.