Sydney transformed by young Catholic pilgrims

Sydney: A rapping priest, Beethoven at the Opera House and a concert on Bondi Beach. A festive spirit gripped Sydney on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims descended on the city for World Youth Day celebrations.

"We are sharing our faith with young people from all over the world,'' said Susy Gomez, 26, from Miami, wrapped up against the winter chill as she walked along Circular Quay. "We are the future of the Church.''

The five-day event is billed as the largest youth gathering in the world and the biggest festival Australia has hosted. More than 140,000 pilgrims attended Tuesday's opening mass and organizers say a similar number will line the foreshore to see Pope Benedict XVI travel through the harbor by boat tomorrow before giving his welcoming address.

More than 300 city streets were closed to traffic to make way for groups of pilgrims waving flags, singing hymns and cheering as they walked to morning religion classes, before an afternoon festival of music and dance.

Video screens and scaffolding stages are dotted through Sydney's parks for more than 150 events today, including a world dance festival with performers from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.

Father Stan Fortuna, a rapping priest from the Bronx, will be among the acts at the "Come to the Water'' concert at Bondi Beach hosted by New York's Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

"The atmosphere is incredible,'' said Rubens Chavez, a 28- year-old systems analyst at the central bank of Brazil, who stayed up all night to attend three church services. The pilgrimage to Australia is part of his journey of "self improvement and spirituality,'' he said.

Papal 'Boat-a-Cade'

The 81-year-old pope, who arrived in Australia at the weekend and is recovering from his 20-hour flight at a private retreat, will be welcomed to Sydney by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tomorrow. Hundreds of pilgrims are scheduled to join him in a 13-vessel "boat-a-cade'' along the harbor to Barangaroo wharf where he will make his opening address.

The German-born pontiff, who will conduct an open-air mass drawing as many as 500,000 people on July 20, will also travel through the city tomorrow in his "pope mobile.''

He addressed pilgrims by text message yesterday, saying: "Young friend, God & his people expect much from u, because u have within u the Father's supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus.''

It is Benedict's first visit to Australia where about 26 percent of the country's 21.3 million people described themselves as Catholic in the most recent census, carried out in 2001.

World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as an annual event to reach out to the next generation of Catholics. It is celebrated at diocesan level every Palm Sunday and every two to three years is taken to an international host city, where pilgrims take part in a weeklong series of prayer meetings and teaching sessions.

"My faith has grown stronger after every World Youth Day,'' said Hildanith Aponte Rivas, 33, from Puerto Rico, who attended the event in Toronto in 2002 and Cologne in 2005. "When you get together with the other youth of the world, you know you are not alone in putting God first in your life.''