Pope addresses environment, pop culture in World Youth Day speech

Pope Benedict XVI used his first major address at the Roman Catholic Church’s youth festival on Thursday to warn that the world was being scarred and its natural resources used up by humanity’s “insatiable consumption.”

The pope also criticized television and the Internet for treating violence and sexual exploitation as entertainment and attacked moral relativism, laying out an agenda for the festival focusing on social justice and the environment.

The Vatican has increasingly spoken out about the environment and the pope has raised his concerns about the emptiness of secularism, messages that seem tailored specifically for young audiences.

An international television audience of up to one billion people is expected to see Sydney at its sparkling best as the Pope spends almost three hours mixing with Sydneysiders and pilgrims.

The Papal boatacade leaves Rose Bay at 2.45pm and the best vantage points include Mrs Macquaries Point, Milsons Point, Kirribilli, Balmain and Pyrmont Point.

In scenes reminiscent of Bicentenary Day in 1988, a massive fleet of spectator craft will line up to view the 81-year-old Catholic leader's official flotilla of 13 boats.

About 100 people who customarily stay in Hyde Park and The Domain had been moved on to other areas in the city to make way for the week of WYD festivities,  advocacy group Homeless Voice claimed.

"I am a little bit surprised they haven't taken more care of the actual people who Jesus came for and that's the disadvantaged, marginalised broken people,"  Homeless Voice spokesman Kevin Simpson told the ABC. 

But WYD coordinator Bishop Anthony Fisher said he was not aware such actions had being taken.

"I'm quite confident that no one acting for World Youth Day would have been moving anyone on," Bishop Fisher said today.

"And for no other reason (than), we'd have no power to move anybody like that."

UNDER a brilliant winter sky, wild cheers erupted across Barangaroo when the biggest youth Mass in Australian history got under way in Sydney yesterday.

More than 150,000 pilgrims, spirits soaring, had spent the day flooding into the venue in anticipation of the extraordinary celebration led by Cardinal George Pell, which marked the official opening of World Youth Day.

At 2.30pm, applause rang out as the word "Welcome" appeared over Darling Harbour, courtesy of a skywriter.

A DIRECT line to God is out of the question, but you can have one to the Pope as he starts sending text messages today.

Today's message, due to go out around 10am, will be the following:

Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI 

Masses of believers will take part in the first event on the WYD calendar from 8am (AEST) until midday, with a pilgrimage to the Cathedral.

The WYD's opening Mass will then take place from 4.40pm and organisers expect more than 140,000 believers to attend.

The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, from atop a two-storey dias at the city's dockside Barangaroo.

Indian pilgrims who have gone missing in Auckland may have been involved in an immigration scam, according to a report today.

An Auckland Justice of the Peace has revealed some of the 32, who were bound for the Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney, said they had paid $15,000 each to 'agents' in India who told them they could stay in New Zealand, National Radio reported.

Catholic Church spokesperson Lyndsay Freer said the news was "shocking".

"As far as I know nobody in the church would have any inkling that anything like this was happening. "It appears World Youth Day has been used as an excuse and that is really quite alarming."

Hosts of 32 missing Indian pilgrims, bound for the Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney, are hopeful they will turn up for their flight out of New Zealand today.

"I'm guessing they took a holiday in New Zealand on their own without informing the church, but I don't think they'd give up the chance to meet the Pope," said Maria Chan, whose friend from St Thomas Moore Church in Glenfield was supposed to have hosted one of the missing Indians.

Hundreds of pilgrims singing in dozens of languages chanted and clapped as the 3.8-metre cross completed a year-long journey around Australia and arrived in the city hosting Catholicism's biggest youth celebration.

After a 70,000km passage in Australia alone, the church's version of the Olympic torch was cheered across Sydney Harbour and through city streets on the eve of a week-long event drawing up to 225,000 registered pilgrims from 177 countries.

About 100,000 international pilgrims have already arrived in Sydney, the event's co-ordinator, Bishop Anthony Fisher, said. He confirmed a total of 215,000 international and Australian Catholics were registered for the events, which officially begin tomorrow and conclude on Sunday.

Sydney is facing major traffic snarls this week, unless 30 per cent of commuters heed advice to leave their cars at home, event organisers have warned.

The warning from the World Youth Day Co-ordination Authority came as church officials suggested the unexpected arrival of overseas Catholics might push patronage beyond original estimates.

The first road clearways and closures came into effect last Friday, but with the arrival of the Pope - and the ongoing arrivals of pilgrims - the authority said commuters must brace themselves.

Even if commuters switch to public transport, locals will face traffic of another kind, with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims pounding the city's pavements . Tomorrow, the city's major artery, George Street, will be closed to all but pedestrian traffic for the duration of the celebrations.

On the eve of World Youth Day, young Australians have spoken out against the Catholic Church in an online poll.

In the survey, conducted on MySpace.com, 77 per cent of 650 young Australians polled said they felt the church was out of touch with them.

For non-Catholic and non-Christian youth aged between 14 and 24 who were questioned on topics relating to World Youth Day and the teachings of the Catholic Church, 65 per cent said the event was not relevant to them at all. Fifty-three per cent of Catholic youth said they could not be involved in the international religious gathering because of the churches' stance on sexuality.