Religion - Year 9 - The Catholic Church in Australia: World Youth Day 2008

Remembering World Youth Day 2008 - The 23rd World Youth Day was celebrated in Sydney, July 15-20 2008. The festival marked the first WYD held in Oceania. Nearly 500,000 young people from more than 200 countries took part in that week’s festivities. That number ballooned to more than one million during the weekend. In addition to the youth who attended, WYD08 attracted more than 600 bishops and cardinals as well as 6,600 reporters from around the world. Pope Benedict’s attendance was a major draw card.

World Youth Days: The Basics - World Youth Day is a chance for young people across the world to connect with each other and with God. It gives them a space to share their faith in a variety of ways and to come to know how huge and diverse their Church is.

Memories of World Youth Day Sydney 2008 - The celebration, with its theme “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), was unofficially started on July 14 with the Journey of the Cross and Icon, held just within the heart of the city. The enthusiasm of the crowd swarming through the cityscapes gave a glimpse of what we would see in the coming days—a spirit-filled flock invading the cold and busy streets of Syd­ney. 

Fact Sheet World Youth Day Sydney 2008 (WYD08) 
- includes purpose and history of WYD, key statistics and the event in Sydney.