SYDNEY: Pilgrims at the recently concluded World Youth Day event in Australia, hailed from a total of 170 nations. At Benedict XVI’s official arrival on the Boat-a-cade at Barangaroo on July 17, for the celebrations 500,000 people welcomed him. In total, 168 international flags were used in the Procession of Flags at the WYD08 Opening Mass.

 An estimated international TV audience of 500 million watched the WYD08 events live. With TV and Internet, audiences are estimated to have hit one billion across the world. Alone, the WYD08 website received over 500,000 unique users from Saturday July 12 to Sunday July 20, with the biggest spike in hits occurring Thursday July 17. Top countries watching online streaming included the USA, UK, Italy, Canada, Spain and Germany. WYD accredited 2,000 media figures.

During the week from Tuesday to Sunday, 450 youth festivities took place in over 100 venues. One thousand priests heard confession, while Catechesis was delivered at 235 locations across Sydney in 29 different languages. There were in total, 4,000 priests and deacons, 420 Bishops and 26 Cardinals, besides the Pope.

 Benedict sent six daily inspirational text messages and physically met six native Australian animals from Taronga Zoo when in Kenthurst  – a wallaby, koala, python, lizard, baby crocodile and an echidna. He lunched with 12 lucky youths on July 18, and confirmed 24 people at the Final Mass at Randwick racecourse. They included 14 young Australians and 10 international young people. During his motorcades, the Pope kissed four small children, including baby Tumi Lee, a descendant of Saint Joseph Luu, who died in 1845, after being tortured for refusal to denounce the Catholic faith.

 Qantas, the national airlines company and one of the main sponsors of WYD08, provided 6,000 blankets for pilgrims from across Oceania. Luckily, 37 lucky Burmese pilgrims overcame visa strings to participate in the event, which had 220,000 big Aussie BBQ slices of bread consumed. If laid end to end they would cover the Sydney Harbour Bridge 21 times!

Food items in the bulk of 25million, were ordered for WYD08. With that, 3.6million meals were distributed across approximately 400 venues during the week; while pilgrims consumed 215,000 meat pies, 360,000 lamingtons and 100,000litres of Dairy Farmers Milk.

 During the event, 400,000 attended the Final Mass at Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park, while 235,000 faithful were at the Vigil, where over 200,000 pilgrims camped. These lit at least 232,000 candles.

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