They came from all corners of the globe, almost a quarter million strong, to Sydney, Australia and to what is acknowledged as the world’s largest youth event: World Youth Day 2008. Every moment of this six-day celebration of faith with Pope Benedict XVI was televised live by EWTN Global Catholic Network.

In fact, more international visitors came to Sydney July 15 -20 to celebrate WYD 2008 with Pope Benedict XVI than came for the Olympic Games in 2000. The closing Mass alone attracted more than 500,000 people.

“It [was] staggering to see such a gathering of people joined in faith and charity,” said Father Mark Mary Cristina, MFVA, host of EWTN’s Life on the Rock, a live call-in show for youth. “Tonight, I spoke with an elderly woman who said that WYD has been good for Sydney itself. She said that the smiles of the young people have blessed the city.”
 
Father Mark, who hosted a 90-minute special presentation of his show live from the Sydney Opera House, said that his audience reacted enthusiastically to the Pope, who told the young people: “[The Church] needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity, so that she can always be young in Spirit.”

Father Mark, host of EWTN Global Catholic Network’s “Life on the Rock,” talks with teenaged-pilgrims July 17, 2008 during a live taping of the show by Sydney Harbor during World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. “Life on the Rock” is EWTN’s live call-in show for youth. (AP Images/EWTN/Ian Waldie)

WYD 2008 highlights included a live “Stations of the Cross,” which turned the entire city into an outdoor cathedral. Father Mark, who has been blogging about the event on www.ewtn.com, said that watching the character who portrayed Jesus walking the streets of Sydney demonstrated that “Our Lord is to be found in the modern city.”

Another highlight occurred during the Saturday evening Mass when a young girl went up to the Holy Father to light her candle from his. She then passed it on to a gigantic crowd of people. “[The] sea of people…became a sea of light,” Father Mark said. “We are called to be witnesses and shine the light we have received.”

To get to the site of the final Mass, the youth had to make a pilgrimage over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. EWTN’s on-site producers noted that the long, colorful line of youthful participants against the beautiful backdrop of the harbor and the city skyline was a dramatic testament to the power of the event for those who traveled to Sydney and for the millions who watched the event on television.

During the closing Mass, Pope Benedict spoke to young people about the “quiet sense of despair” in many societies today. He said that communion with God is a way to combat this despair and recommended that all people make a serious commitment to prayer.

In one of his final blogs for ewtn.com, Father Mark summed up the event: “God wants to work an interior transformation in our lives and radiate His goodness to the world around us.”

Father Mark, host of EWTN Global Catholic Network’s “Life on the Rock,” tapes a live show Thursday, July 17, 2008 with the dramatic Sydney Harbor Bridge looming behind him. “Life on the Rock” is EWTN’s live call-in show for youth. (AP Images/EWTN/Ian Waldie)

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 27th year, is available in over 148 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com and publishing arm, EWTN, is the largest religious media network in the world.