It is the longest journey of Pope Benedict XVI, both as period and distance. To reach Australia, the land in which the World Youth Day is being celebrated from 13th to 21st July, the Pope is leaving on Saturday, 12th July, and will travel for over twenty hours by plane, crossing ten time zones. With that information, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press room, commented this morning, with the journalists, the programme for the apostolic journey of Benedict XVI to Sidney, on the occasion of the World Youth Day 2008. The Pope goes to Australia for the first time. However, two of his predecessors had already been to that country: Paul VI and John Paul II. The latest went there for two times in 1986 and 1995, on the occasion of the beatification of Mary MacKillop. It is the second WYD of Benedict XVI, after the one lived in Cologne in 2005. The papal flight will go on with no interruptions for fifteen hours, until refuelling in Darwin, then it will leave again and go to Sidney, where the Pope is going to be welcomed on Sunday, at 3 pm (without nevertheless any formal speeches) by political and religious authorities. Immediately afterwards, the Pope will go to a private residence supplied by the Opus Dei, where Benedict XVI will spend three days of private stay, in which he will relax and prepare for the following days. (To be continued)

In these three days, the papal retinue led by the Secretary of State, Card. Tarcisio Bertone, will pay a series of tourist and cultural visits, including one to Paramatta and another one to a village of the Aborigines. After the period of rest, on Thursday, 17th July, the Pope is going to Sidney, to the “Cathedral House”, which is the house of the diocese. In the morning, he is taking part in a ceremony of welcome at the Government House of Sydney, where he will greet (it will be his first formal speech in the Australian land) the federal authorities of the country. Immediately afterwards, he is going to the “MaryMacKillop Memorial" of Sydney, where he will pray in front of the “first Australian Blessed”, beatified by John Paul II, whose canonization cause is currently going on. Still in the morning, the Pope is paying a visit of courtesy to the General Governor at the Admiralty House of Sydney, after which there will be a series of private talks with authorities. Then, in the afternoon, the Pope is meeting, for the first time, the young coming from all over the world on the occasion of the World Youth Day. According to estimates - said Father Lombardi -, there will be 125 thousand young people coming from outside Australia. He added that “the organizers were happy about that”. (To be continued)

The arrival of the Pope among the young will take place in a “scenographic” framework: at the Rose Bay wharf, in Sydney, the Pope will board on the ship "Sydney 2000". After a 45-minute navigation, he will arrive in the wharf of Barangaroo East Darling Harbour, Sydney. Before leaving, and at the arrival, the Pope will be welcomed by songs and dances of young Aborigines. “The presence of Aborigines in this journey of the Pope - said Father Lombardi - is a quite important fact, a really present-day event”. The Australian Aboriginal people was the victim of “injustice and violence” in history, which the Church acknowledged several times, and for which it also expressed “requests for pardon”. The sign of this acknowledgement - pointed out Father Lombardi - is the presence of a composition made by an Aboriginal artist on the paraments used by the Pope during the celebrations for the World Youth Day. The composition portrays a bird as symbol of the Holy Spirit. Friday 18th is the day on which the Pope is meeting the representatives of the Christian Churches and of the other religions, whose more and more numerous presence is the outcome of the long history of immigration to Australia. At half past twelve, the Pope is having lunch with a group of young people: 12 on the whole, “like the apostles”, one boy and one girl for every continent, plus two Australian boys. (To be continued)