Spiritual renewal in Australia pinned on WYD

A good article from Fides news talking about the spiritual state of the youth in Australia:

The survey carried out in 2005 among 800 teenagers showed that most young people have only a scarce knowledge of religious matters of are indifferent to them and reluctant to answer existential questions on the meaning of life.

“There is a clear decline in faith in God closely connected with the post-modern idea that there is no such thing as One Truth”, says Philip Hughes who led the survey. “This relativist thought puts young people in crisis removing their traditional reference points generating vagueness, disorientation and uncertainty. This way of thinking offers no solutions to problems and difficulties encountered in life”.

Aware of this situation the Church in Australia is pinning great hopes on World Youth Day in Sydney 15-20 July in 2008 on the theme “You will have the power of the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1,8). WYD the local Church says “will be an injection of spiritual values which will help young Australians rediscover Jesus Christ. It will give new life to Catholic communities and be a unique event for all Australians who will be challenged to reflect and review their life style”.

To counter growing secularism “WYD 2008 will encourage Australians to reflect on the great existential questions, the message of Jesus Christ. Young people are vulnerable. WYD will be an opportunity for them to stop and meditate on the life and death of Jesus Christ, his Gospel and his call to every person to follow Him”.

Well, WYD did its trick for the youth in Germany... while no doubt the situation was helped by having a German in the Chair of Peter (as another article reports):

The election of Bavarian-born Joseph Ratzinger a year ago appears to have come at the right time for the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, which, though it boasts 26 million members, was seeing church attendance decline at an alarming rate.

Benedict XVI's visit to Cologne last August for the World Youth Day festival proved that the shyness for which the former Cardinal Ratzinger was well-known would not hamper his reception by the public. He received an enthusiastic welcome on his first visit to his homeland since his election. The tone was set when thousands of teenagers waded into the waters of the Rhine to get a closer look as the pontiff passed on a ferry, and one million young people, the majority of them Germans, took part in the closing mass.

Even beyond Catholic circles, the pope has been good for the church locally. While 59 percent of Catholics believe his election has boosted the Catholic Church in Germany, 54 percent of agnostics and 52 percent of Protestants share the same view, according to a recent survey for the Neue Bildpost. A quarter of Germans believe it is important that the pope is one of them ... [more]

It's true - a little bit bit of Benny goes a long way.

Hearing about the good effects of his visit to German is rather encouraging when one takes a look at the other countries that are due for a visit.