SYDNEY—Australia's Cardinal George Pell says his friendship with the Pope helped bring the Catholic Church's 23rd World Youth Day to Sydney.
Dr Pell has told The Bulletin magazine it's impossible to know whether Sydney would have been successful in the gaining the massive event were it not for his impeccable Vatican connections.
"I have known the Pope for 20 years, so I mean that was probably no disadvantage," he told the magazine.
"I admire him very much ... I think I'd be justified in saying I'd regard him as a personal friend."
Catholics are counting on World Youth Day reinvigorating Australia's sagging faith in the religion.
It's hoped the world's largest youth event will inspire more young men to enter the priesthood and more young women to devote themselves to the church.
Dr Pell told The Bulletin he viewed the July pilgrimage as an opportunity to reinvigorate the faithful and arrest falling church attendance and dangerously low priest numbers.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have a bit of a bounce for a couple of years afterwards in terms of young men coming into the priesthood and young women to devote themselves to the Catholic church and even the number of young Catholics who want to become Catholic teachers," he told the magazine.
About 5.1 million Australians call themselves Catholic, but only 14 per cent attend church regularly.
That leaves about 4.3 million who don't go or are what Dr Pell calls C&E Catholics (Christmas and Easter).
"I wouldn't call it a crisis, but we face a serious erosion of practice and to some extent an erosion of faith also," he told The Bulletin.
"World Youth Day is an attempt to do something about it.
More than 500,000 people are expected to attend Pope Benedict XVI's papal mass at Randwick racecourse, including 250,000 pilgrims aged 16 to 35 from around the world who will converge on Sydney for six days of celebration.
Sydneysiders will be confronted with repentant pilgrims confessing their sins en-masse and random outbreaks of prayerful guitar playing.
Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby - a devotee of World Youth Days in Rome, Toronto and Cologne - told The Bulletin of his past experiences.
"You can hardly get on a train or bus without someone playing their guitar," he said.
At Rome World Youth Day in 2000, about one million young people made their confession to hundreds of priests.
More than one billion television viewers are expected to tune in to the coverage of the Stations of Cross, which depicts the final hours of Jesus Christ's life.
The entire event dwarfs the Olympics and will be the single largest event ever held in Australia.
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