World Youth Day in Australia

UltraMonk
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World Youth Day in Australia

Well thankfully I live on the west coast and the WYD is on the east coast.

 

Some of you may have heard that before WYD started the law stating that people that annoyed the pilgrims may receive fines of up to $5,300 was overturned. What was 'annoying' wasn't defined. So at least the protestors are out there in full force to object to the various policies and problems of the Catholic Church.

 

However we come to the following article where a pilgrim allegedly physically assaulted a homosexual protestor and well, you guessed it, got let off with maybe a 'stern warning'?

 

He probably said he was sorry and everyone forgave him ...

 

Anyway the article itself from ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/19/2308577.htm

 

Pilgrim arrested in clash with protesters

 

One pilgrim has been arrested after clashing with anti-pope protesters on the route of the pilgrim walk in Sydney.

The pilgrim, from Newcastle, allegedly jumped on a gay protester and punched him in the neck during. He was not charged and was released shortly after the incident.

About 1,000 protesters took up positions alongside the pilgrim walk for a rally against the Pope's opposition to homosexuality and birth control.

Chanting "Pope go homo, gay is great" and singing "Pope is wrong, put a condom on", the protesters threw condoms at the pilgrims, who were making their way to Randwick racecourse for an overnight prayer vigil.

A drag queen dressed in pink going under the moniker "Pope Alice" also paraded before the pilgrims, while other protesters wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Thank God I'm an atheist" and "Bless me father for I am a homo".

There was a heavy police presence at the protest, including officers on horses, and demonstrators were cordoned off from the bulk of the worshippers.

Most of the pilgrims reacted with smiles, waves and chants of their own but not all were happy about the protesters' presence.

The pilgrims, who were attending the prayer vigil ahead of a papal mass Sunday involving an estimated 500,000 people, appeared unfazed by the protest, with some making peace signs as they passed by.

Maraget Leatuafi from New Zealand said pilgrims had been advised by World Youth day organisers not to retaliate if the protesters challenged their faith.

"They are allowed to have their say too about what they believe but maybe they need to do a bit more study (about the church)," the 55-year-old said.

Another pilgrim, Ruud, 15, from the Netherlands, said he was not bothered by the protest.

"It is is their right to stand up for their views. we live in a democracy," he said.

Around 500,000 pilgrims are expected to be at the racecourse for tonight's vigil and tomorrow mass.

The Harbour Bridge was re-opened to traffic at 5:00pm after it was closed for the path of the pilgrimage.

 

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I AM GOD AS YOU
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Sue the Pope ... Eat the

Sue the Pope ... Eat the Rich ... Save the Trees ...  Free the Girls ... Teach the Kids ...


D-cubed
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I'll bet you a lot of

I'll bet you a lot of Catholic kids got laid those days.  What else would happen when there are thousands of single kids, away from home, all burdened with religious guilt and sexual frustration?  Yeah, some Catholic girls are bringing home something extra.


shelley
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D-cubed wrote:I'll bet you a

D-cubed wrote:

I'll bet you a lot of Catholic kids got laid those days.  What else would happen when there are thousands of single kids, away from home, all burdened with religious guilt and sexual frustration?  Yeah, some Catholic girls are bringing home something extra.

I went to World Youth Day in '93... now I won't deny that there were plenty of other Catholic activities where there was something extra going on but that wasn't exactly the place... too much hiking, and camping, and trying to fight the crowd to get a good picture of the Pope.  yeah, tons of fun. Sad


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looks like i was wrong...

source

World's largest confessional staged in Sydney

By Pauline Askin
Reuters
Saturday, July 19, 2008; 9:18 PM

SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins.

With some 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims attending WYD from July 15-20 the Church is staging the world's largest confessional, with more than 1,000 priests at anyone time hearing sins and dispensing penance at 250 locations.

"The notion in Sydney was to decentralize the celebration of reconciliation (confession). The groups received reconciliation in over 250 locations throughout greater Sydney," said Monsigneur Marc Caron, the man in charge of the mass confessional.

With pilgrims from more than 170 nations, confessionals had to be organized not just geographically but also according to different languages, Caron told Reuters.

"Some of the locations are from concert halls downtown to function halls to schools and churches. Those are assigned by language, the French have so many venues, we have a Norwegian venue, a Korean and so many Chinese venues," he said.

Organizers have tried to be attentive to the sensitivity of confession and ensure pilgrims do not overhear each other's sins.

"Whilst we don't have sound proof venues, they are padded dividers between stalls and they are in locations where there is so much going on and background noise," said Caron.

"I've been to each of the locations and I think people's privacy is perfectly assured."

Confessions are being heard for up to six hours a day. In order to avoid overloading the priests hearing confessions they are allotted a break every 90 minutes.

Up to 4,000 priests are attending World Youth Day in one capacity or another and will lend an ear to hearing confessions.

"At any one time there could easily be 1,000 priests hearing confession," Caron said. "We're not keeping track of the numbers (of sinners), but at the main venue in Darling Harbour Convention Centre it's very steady all the time."

Caron said even if he knew he wouldn't be able to divulge the top 10 sins being confessed by young pilgrims.

The Catholic Church hopes World Youth Day, the brainchild of the late Pope John Paul II, will revitalize the world's young Catholics.

(Editing by Michael Perry)

 


HisWillness
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D-cubed wrote:I'll bet you a

D-cubed wrote:

I'll bet you a lot of Catholic kids got laid those days.  What else would happen when there are thousands of single kids, away from home, all burdened with religious guilt and sexual frustration?  Yeah, some Catholic girls are bringing home something extra.

I think that's been the plan the whole time: more Catholics.

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HisWillness wrote:I think

HisWillness wrote:
I think that's been the plan the whole time: more Catholics.

On Monday when this whole thing was kicking off there were stories in all the papers about some cardinal warning western nations to "populate or die".  I just scoffed at it thinking "Yeah right, as if we don't already have enough of an overpopulation problem on this planet", but it backs up these (possibly joking) claims.

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One thing that really got to

One thing that really got to me were some of the stories on the transport situation.  Here's two stories from the Friday and Saturday of the whole thing.  The ONLY reason the traffic was calm and things worked is because those of us who live here were essentially evicted from our own damned city.  Quite literally our government was telling us to leave the city, go on holiday or something.  So it's a case of "well duh, if you empty the cbd of course the traffic problems are going to go away.  Are you bloody dense or something?"  And the Friday one talking about the "miracle" of the train/bus system getting so many people out so smoothly after Thursday night really got my goat.  Let me tell you a little story about the REAL miracle of the transport situation on Thursday night.

I was working in the Circular Quay office.  It normally takes me 10 minutes to walk from the front door of the office to my bus stop 4 streets away.  Guess how long it took me thanks to this "miracle" of transport.

According to Palpatine's schedule, he was meant to be at some chappel beyond where I worked by 4:45pm, which means he would be passing through at 4:30pm at the latest.  I left the office at 4:45pm and slowly made my way through the livestock in my usual direction.  All the baracades were still up and livestock cheering on.  I eventually came across some other office workers who asked if there was a way out in the direction I had come from.  Nope, none in the direction they came from either.  We were caged in.  "But the pope was meant to have gone past by now." "No, he's delayed it by an hour".  YOU FUCKING WHAT???  That's right, he delayed his trip through the city so there would be thousands of office workers stuck in their buildings.  THAT is the start of the "miracle" of the public transport display.

We keep wandering around as a group and one of the people tries to get the attention of a nearby police officer.  After eventually doing so, we find out the train station on the opposite side of the block is acessable and it's our only way out.  So instead of my usual 10 minute 4-block walk, I have to spend my own damned money on a train.  So I get to the train station, to keep things flowing they're filling up one platform then blocking it off and directing people up the other.  It doesn't matter which direction you want to go, you're only allowed up the platform they say.  So eventually after I've finally gotten to the front of the queue for the ticket machines and been directed up to the platforms, catch a train IN THE WRONG FSCKEN DIRECTION because I have no other option.  I get off at the first station after it, go across to another platform, get a train going in the right direction to one stop on the other side of where I started. 

Finally, at 6pm I am up at my bus stop.  ONE HOUR after I left the office I am 10 minutes walk away.  I'm usually home by 6pm!  THIS is the fracken "miracle" of the public transport system.

I am so fucking glad this is all finally over.

I have a copy of an earlier draft (note: only one week in advance of this thing happening) of the bus changes happening, and there were no changes to my route.  Some time in that final week they changed it and had my bus starting and terminating closer to the bridge.  Sure, it's only another 10-15 minute walk, but I have a bad knee that hates walking especially when I'm carrying a heavy backpack (as I do for work).  My bus always terminated at the earlier spot, but it was always random as to whether it started at the earlier one which was fscken brilliant because if I was at the stop it was MEANT to start at and it started at the usual spot, it would drive straight past due to being full already.

One thing I read in the weeks leading up to this went along these lines.  Wouldn't it be great if we had somewhere in Sydney that was not only central to the entire city, but also had transportation going directly to it from all directions and was actually designed to hold hundreds of thousands of people during a special event rather than cramming them in to an already crowded central business district?  Oh wait, we do.  It's called Homebush Bay, it was built for the Olympics specially for this kind of thing and has already been real-world tested!

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The pope should get yogurt

The pope should get yogurt poured on his head.

 

Would doing that get a Catholic excommunicated?