VATICAN - The Pope, looking ahead to World Youth Day, invites “the whole Church to share in this new stage of the great pilgrimage of young people across the world” and makes an appeal to the participants in the G-8 Summit, “so that at the heart of their deliberations they will put the needs of the weakest and poorest peoples.”

Castel Gandolfo (Agenzia Fides) – “My thoughts already go to Australia where, God willing, I will travel next Saturday, July 12. In Sydney, in fact, in the southeast of the country, the 23rd World Youth Day will take place.” With these words, the Holy Father Benedict XVI wished to dedicate the first Angelus recited at the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence, to World Youth Day. On July 6, looking out from his balcony to the internal courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, where faithful and pilgrims were gathered, the Pope greeted the authorities and the entire civil and ecclesial community of Castel Gandolfo. Later, he recalled that during the past several months, the "young people's cross" has been taken all over Oceania and “in Sydney it will be once again a silent witness of the pact of alliance between the Lord Jesus Christ and the new generations.” As “the first groups of young men and women from other continents are already leaving for Australia,” Benedict XVI invites “the whole Church to share in this new stage of the great pilgrimage of young people across the world, begun in 1985 by the Servant of God John Paul II.”
“The forthcoming World Youth Day is proclaimed as a new Pentecost,” the Pope said, recalling the theme of his Message for the Day: “ ‘You Will Receive Power When the Holy Spirit Has Come Upon You; and You Will Be My Witnesses ‘ (Acts 1:8). It is the promise Jesus made to his disciples after the resurrection, and which remains always valid and actual in the Church: The Holy Spirit, awaited and received in prayer, infuses in believers the capacity to be witnesses of Jesus and his Gospel.
Blowing on the Church's sail, the divine Spirit pushes her to ‘go into the deep,’ always anew, from generation to generation, to take to everyone the Good News of the love of God, revealed fully in Jesus Christ, dead and resurrected for us. I am certain that from all the corners of the earth Catholics will be united with me and with all the young people gathered -- as in the Cenacle -- in Sydney, intensely invoking the Holy Spirit so that he will flood hearts with the inner light of love of God and of brothers, and of courageous initiative to introduce Jesus' eternal message in the diversity of languages and cultures.” The Pope entrusted his trip to Australia and the youth encounter to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s maternal protection, invoking Her intercession “so that the summer season might offer everyone the occasion for a time of rest and physical and spiritual renewal.”
After the recitation of the Angelus, Benedict XVI asked that particular efforts be made by the participants in the annual G-8 summit, saying, “Tomorrow, July 7, the heads of state of member countries of the G-8, together with other leaders of the world, will meet in Japan for their annual summit. In recent days numerous voices have been raised -- among them those of the presidents of the episcopal conferences of the involved nations -- to appeal for the carrying out of the commitments assumed in previous G-8 meetings, and to adopt all the measures necessary to overcome the scourge of extreme poverty, hunger, sicknesses and illiteracy that still affect a great part of humanity. I also join myself to this solemn call to solidarity! Therefore, I address the participants in the Hokkaido-Toyako meeting, so that at the heart of their deliberations they will put the needs of the weakest and poorest peoples, whose vulnerability has increased because of speculation and financial turbulence and its adverse effects on the price of food and energy. I hope that generosity and foresight will help them to make decisions in regard to relaunching an equitable process of integral development to safeguard human dignity.”
The Pope then gave a special greeting to the children and their chauffeurs participating in the “"International Festival of Children Artists 2008," organized by the "Soong Ching Ling Foundation of Italy." “Love, concord, harmony and solidarity are the values that you want to promote in China and in the rest of the countries of the world,” the Pope said. “Art and culture can unite peoples. Children represent the future of the human family and, hence, are called in their own right to build a more beautiful and more human world. Your presence allows me to send good wishes of peace and joy to all your contemporaries in China and in the world.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/6/2008)