World Youth Day 2008: 425 days and counting!

Hey, it'll be here before you know it!

This is an overdue post on the topic of World Youth Day 2008, which will be held July 15th-20th in Sydney, Australia.

First, some recent updates. CathNews reports that they've chosen an official theme song for the event: "Receive the Power" by former Australian Idol star Guy Sebastian. According to the WYD coordinator, Bishop Anthony Fisher, it "hits the mark on every level." [CNA has more.]

The song plays into the theme of this WYD, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

While logistics planning for such a large gathering of youth is crucial, the apostolic nuncio to Australia recently told the Australian bishops' conference during its plenary meeting in Sydney that the real challenge is not organization, "but rather in integrating the event into the life of the Church." In this Zenit article, he begins to touch upon the wonderful creative and inspirational potential a well-executed WYD can have for its host country. I'll be praying that the fruits of WYD are especially made present to the Church in Australia.

Registrations for this year's WYD are already humming along, to the tune of 80,000. Twenty-seven thousand of those are from the U.S.

Now some good web links/resources:

• The Official WYD website.
• Wikipedia's WYD 2008 page
• The Vatican's WYD '08 page, with a very good information sheet.
• The USCCB page offers a PowerPoint Presentation here.
• Here is the text of Pope Benedict's message to youth from this year.
• At the bottom of this page are many archived stories related to WYD 2008.

I had the privilege of attending World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne, Germany, and am currently trying to find a good way to attend this one in Sydney next summer (any hot tips would be appreciated, of course!). One of my little brothers is mowing lawns this summer to raise funds for his trip.

I'll be adding this post to the sidebar soon and continuing to keep my eyes peeled for important WYD-related stories and opportunities. Please feel free to send in your own information as well!

I had intended to feature this "WYD SYD 2008 - 'Dare You To Move' Promo Video" to finish the post, only to discover upon viewing it that I'm actually in one of the short clips! Rock on, says I.

Kudos to the first person to find the (brief) footage of me...