Pope asks Whole Church to Participate in World Youth day

(July 7, 2008) The upcoming World Youth Day will be a new Pentecost, Pope Benedict XVI said and he asked the whole Church to participate, at least spiritually, if not physically. The Pope made this invitation before he prayed the midday Angelus with crowds gathered at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo on Sunday. He emphasized the importance of Catholics worldwide joining in prayer for the July 15-20 event, to be held in Sydney, Australia. "I invite the whole Church to share in this new stage of the great pilgrimage of young people across the world, begun in 1985 by the Servant of God John Paul II," the Pope exhorted. "I am certain that from all the corners of the earth Catholics will be united with me and with all the young people gathered in Sydney, intensely invoking the Holy Spirit so that he will flood hearts with the inner light of love of God and of brothers, and of courageous initiative to introduce Jesus' eternal message in the diversity of languages and cultures," he added. Even in his greetings to pilgrims in various languages after the Angelus, the Holy Father stressed the importance of this "spiritual participation" of the whole Church in Sydney's World Youth Day. He referred to the theme of his message for the meeting, "You Will Receive Power When the Holy Spirit Has Come upon You; and You Will Be My Witnesses," with which Christian communities have been preparing over the past year for the event. The Holy Spirit, awaited and received in prayer, infuses in believers the capacity to be witnesses of Jesus and his Gospel. Finally, he reflected briefly on the two symbols of Youth Day, which are always present in these events: the young people's cross and an icon of the Virgin Mary.