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POPE-WYD Jul-7-2008 (520 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope asks Catholics to pray for WYD; Vatican announces indulgences
By Catholic News Service
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked Catholics around the world to pray for the young people who will gather with him in Sydney, Australia, for the celebration of World Youth Day.
To help encourage the prayers of all, the Vatican announced July 5 that the pope had authorized a special indulgence for anyone who, "with a contrite spirit," raises a "prayer to God, the Holy Spirit, so that young people are drawn to charity and given the strength to proclaim the Gospel with their life," a Vatican decree said.
Pope Benedict spoke about his July 12-21 trip to Australia when he met visitors at his summer villa south of Rome for the July 6 recitation of the Angelus. World Youth Day runs July 15-20 in Sydney.
Australian young people, he said, had been preparing for the event with a prayerful pilgrimage of the World Youth Day cross, "a silent witness of the covenant pact between the Lord Jesus Christ and the new generations."
"The first groups of young men and women already are departing from other continents, headed for Australia," he said.
"I invite the entire church to feel like participants in this new stage of the great youth pilgrimage throughout the world begun in 1985 by the servant of God John Paul II," who convoked the first World Youth Day, the pope said.
Focusing on prayers for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Catholic youths around the world, the Sydney celebration can be "a renewed Pentecost," the pope said.
Jesus' promise to send the Spirit to his disciples remains valid for all time and will give his followers the strength to witness to him and to the Gospel, Pope Benedict said.
The pope asked everyone to join him in praying that the Spirit would fill the hearts of young Catholics with "interior light, love for God and their brothers and sisters, (and with) courageous initiatives" to bring Jesus to every land and every sphere of life.
The July 5 decree about indulgences connected to World Youth Day included the offer of a plenary, or full, indulgence to all the young people who will gather with the pope in Sydney.
An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven. The conditions necessary for receiving a plenary indulgence include having recently gone to confession, receiving the Eucharist and offering prayers for the intentions of the pope.
The decree signed by U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Vatican office that deals with indulgences, said a partial indulgence also is available to all Catholics who are contrite for their sins and offer their prayers with the pope for young Catholics.
The cardinal also asked priests around the world to make themselves available to hear the confessions of those who want the indulgence and to encourage public prayers for the success of World Youth Day.
Cardinal Stafford was archbishop of Denver when Pope John Paul traveled to the city for the 1993 celebration of World Youth Day.
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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