WYD2008 Super Thursday

Today was 'Super-Thursday' of World Youth Day (week) in Sydney and it was an amazing spectacle. The Sydney CBD was packed with thousands of people attired in the firey orange and yellow WYD 2008 signature outfits. Flags of numerous nations were proudly on display as people marched onto Barangaroo. Unfortunately, since I wasn't a registered pilgrim, I couldn't join them in the main area of Barangaroo. Luckily I did find a great vantage point from where I could observe all of Barangaroo. And boy were there a lot of them. The entire ex-shipping yard was covered with people, with estimates of around 130,000 pilgrims packed into that area.

Even though hordes of people were being herded like cattle, there was lots of singing and dancing in the crowd. The "Free Hugs" girls and guys in my photos really captured the feel of the event in my mind. The entire feeling of giving love for the sake of giving without caring about race, gender or age. The concept is not at all new, but it was lovely to see it at this event.

I was expecting to see some activists complaining about condom use, abortion or other controversial religious decisions. Yet I didn't see even one and I was all over the place from Barangaroo to the Domain. I was originally annoyed that these folk would try to ruin the event (though they do have the right to free speech), but after being there, I would feel sorry for any person who tried to push that kind of ideology against the crowd that was there tonight. They would have been politely ignored at best or ridiculed by the more militant religious ones. You'd have to be quite ballsy to try it.

Of course the Pope did arrive and that was pretty cool. He seems like a nice guy and maybe over time people will grow to respect him the same way we did JP2. The motorcade was funny since they drove past at around 40km/h so it is very quick. Despite one guy going, 'wow, was that it?', in general the crowd was elated and had that 'Wow, I saw the Pope!' excitment in their eyes.

Some come for the celebrity, some come for faith, some come to find meaning and others just to be part of the event. Organized religion may be dying, but its not dead yet.