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bishop braxton to speak at world youth day in sydney, australia

Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from around the world, including representatives from the Diocese of Belleville, will gather in Sydney, Australia for the celebration of the 23rd World Youth Day, July 15-20, 2008. Bishop Edward K. Braxton is scheduled to give three catechetical presentations and to be the celebrant and homilist at three Masses for English-speaking participants.

World Youth Day, started by Pope John Paul II, takes place every four years. The previous celebration was in Cologne, Germany in 2004. It is the largest youth event in the world, attracting more participants than the Olympics. George Cardinal Pell, the Host of World Youth Day and the Archbishop of Sydney, said it will also be the largest gathering of people in Australia’s history. The pope himself convokes World Youth Day and this year His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has asked the participants to celebrate their faith around the theme of the Holy Spirit: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.” (Acts 1:8) These words of the Lord Jesus Christ are spoken after His death and resurrection, just before His ascension into Heaven. They refer to the birth of the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The pope, who visited the United States in April, focusing on the theme “Christ our Hope,” will lead the World Youth Day celebrations. More than 500,000 Catholics are expected to participate in the Holy Father’s concluding Mass at Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park on Sunday, July 20, 2008. This is the actual World Youth Day. This will be the pontiff’s first visit to Australia.

Through the World Youth Day experience, Catholic young people from all over the world will make a pilgrimage in faith. They will meet other dedicated Catholics, deepen their love for the Church, and open their hearts to Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the week there will be a great variety of activities for the young people. These include vocation discernment opportunities (with an emphasis on the priesthood), special prayer sessions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, frequent opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Scripture studies, music, arts and crafts, and different recreational events in diverse languages. For many of the students, this will be the first experience of the catholicity of the Church.

Ms. Colette Kennett, director of Youth Ministry for the diocese, believes that the young people from our parishes who are planning to attend are very enthusiastic about it. They understand very well that, while they hope to have fun, this is not a vacation, but a journey of faith. The delegation from our diocese includes fourteen high school students from seven parishes, four college students, three adult assistants and Ms. Kennett. They depart on July 9 in order to participate in the “Days in the Diocese” sessions prior to the start of World Youth Day.

Bishop Braxton, like bishops from around the world, will join with the pilgrimage from his diocese. He has been invited by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on the Family to give three catechetical presentations centered on the theme of the Holy Spirit and the mission of the Church in the light of the Pentecost event. The first presentation on Wednesday, July 16, is on the topic “Called to Live in the Spirit” (“If we live in the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” (Gal 5:25) This catechesis will help the young people to answer the question: Who is the Holy Spirit? The bishop’s goal will be to assist his hearers in discovering the beauty of the calling they received in baptism and confirmation; the beauty of their calling to the Christian life. He will explain that welcoming the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide their lives is not easy. He will teach them that if they truly want to have a personal relationship with Jesus they need the Holy Spirit. He is the person of the Holy Trinity who permits us to meet Christ and get to know Him.

The second presentation on Thursday, July 17 is on the topic “The Holy Spirit, Soul of the Church” (“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13) The goal of the bishop’s second catechesis is to help the young people to discover the Church, the Body of Christ, a living organism vitalized and enriched by the many gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit. Many youths today feel attracted to Christ and the message of the Gospel. However, sometimes it is difficult for them to fully grasp that the Church and the sacraments provide the ideal opportunity for meeting Christ. They may not easily realize that Christ is active and present in the Church in a unique way, especially in the Holy Eucharist. The bishop’s hope is to convey that Christ does not simply call us to Himself as individuals but in communion as members of a reconciled family.

The third presentation on Friday, July 18 is on the topic “Sent out into the World: the Holy Spirit, the Principal Agent of the Mission of the Church” (“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.”). (Acts 1:8) Bishop Braxton’s intention in the final catechesis is to invite the young people to a deeper awareness that, in our Christian life, the call to holiness cannot be separated from the call to mission and service. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the strength and the courage we need to be Christ’s witnesses in the world, in our neighborhood, in our Parish, and in our families. He will explain that the mission of sharing our Catholic faith and Christian service is the duty of every true Christian (cf. 1 Cor. 9;16). It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to learn our faith, teach our faith, live our faith, and love our faith.

On each of the catechetical days Bishop Braxton will be the celebrant and homilist at Mass for English-speaking participants.

In his message to the young people of the world on the occasion of World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Test the quality of your faith in the Holy Spirit. Rediscover it if it is lost. Strengthen it if it has become weak. Savour it as fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, brought about by the indispensable working of the Holy Spirit. Never forget that the Church, in fact humanity itself, all the people around you now and those who await you in the future, expect much from you young people, because you have within you the supreme gift of the Father, the Spirit of Jesus.”

Preparing to depart for Sydney on July 13, Bishop Braxton said, “I look forward to being with so many young Catholics from around the world. Their faith and energy will be a source of renewal to us all. It will be a special joy to share the Catholic faith with the pilgrims in my catechetical presentations and homilies. It is always a time of grace to gather with brother bishops and concelebrate the Eucharist with our Holy Father, who as successor of St. Peter and Bishop of Rome, is charged to strengthen us all in our faith. I am very happy that young people from our diocese will take part in this great spiritual event. I ask you to pray for them and for all the high school students who will gather in Sydney. We must never forget that they are the hope of the Church.”