On a Defence of World Youth Day

World Youth Day, a Catholic celebration of youth, has come to town, bringing with it hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and a papal visit. There are some obvious jokes to get out of the way before I begin a slight defence of what is rapidly becoming a national whipping post. First, World Youth Day week is an oxymoron. Second, pilgrims, seriously, the Catholic tourists call themselves pilgrims.

The event is a large scale celebration of all things religious, youthy and Catholicy. It is held in Australia, a country that prides itself on a sly disrespect for all things holy and dignified. It occurs less than a year after APEC turned the Sydney into a giant rat run, mere months after the Chinese torch relay drew a connection between indignation and action and days after fresh kiddy fiddling scandals among Catholic priests. In short, this event was never going to be the positive 'heart and minds" publicity event needed to overcome the challenges that organised religion faces in Australia.

However the thing that irks me is not the creation of arbitrary police powers during this week, or the disrupted travel schedules, or the potential cost of the event to the public or even that the Catholics still preach an austere, arguably detrimental, interpretation on the connection between spirituality and organised religion. What irks me is that Australia seems incapable of delivering on the level of respect required for a visiting Pope or head of state. The long and the short of it is that that Pope is the Pope. While I do not believe the man is the sole communicator with the Almighty I have the common sense to realise that others look up to the man as a guide and look to this week's festivities as a celebration of their faith. I argue that because Australians are culturally on home turf when it comes to criticising  Christianity and Catholicism we are gaining unnecessary satisfaction from laying the boot into an already declining section of our society.

This is a post in defence of World You Day not because of any fundamental beliefs in the Catholic Church but more in defence of a minimum standard of respect required for visiting officials.