Pacific excitement mounts as islands prepare for
WYD'08
SUVA: 12th September 2006 -- Excitement is mounting
amongst
young Catholics in the hundreds - indeed thousands - of islands that
dot the Pacific Ocean in the Continent known as Oceania. A few
weeks
ago the Bishops of Oceania met in Suva, Fiji, and it seemed that no
matter what subject they touched on, it came back each time to what
promises to be an unparalleled outpouring of the Spirit amongst the
young who make up many of the world's youngest nations - young in
nationhood, young by proportion amongst their populations.
Caroline Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam,
Kiribati, Marshall
Islands, Mariana Islands, Nauru, Norfolk Island, Solomon Islands,
Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu have never formally registered pilgrims before
at a World Youth Day. They will do so for Sydney 2008.
Papua New
Guinea, which has had no more than 10 pilgrims previously registered,
is planning to send 1,000 on a long pilgrimage which will begin in the
Highlands of PNG, cross the Strait to Australia's northern tip then
proceed south the many thousands of kilometres
to Sydney . New Zealand, which has previously managed to put
together
about 100 young people for the long trek to Europe or North America is
aiming to send 10,000 across the Tasman to Sydney.
In the meantime, evangelisation, catechesis and
prayer are the
watchwords for dioceses, religious communities, parishes. The WYD
Cross and Icon are due to arrive in the region in February of 2007, and
already the Bishops and various committees in Pacific Island Catholic
communities are looking at how to convey these symbols around the
millions of square kilometres of ocean and tiny islands. The
WYD-SYD
organisers have promised that young people who come to Sydney for the
event will experience a true pilgrimage in faith. Islanders are
well-placed for pilgrimage - by the most ancient means available to
mankind as well as by the most modern; by boat and by air. The
boat,
for many Pacific Island nations (the canoe) is one of the most potent
symbols they possess. Fiji Islanders have multiple reminders of
the
Drua or huge double-hulled ocean-going canoe everywhere, now
represented by the peculiar design of their public telephone
booths!
The Drua's tall mast and wide sail was a symbol of 'broadcasting' the
voice of the islands long before modern-day broadcasting was ever
thought of.
Meanwhile, Salesian communities in Samoa, Fiji
Islands, Solomon
Islands, Papua New Guinea have their sights on 2008 too. Just
what
shape their contribution will take is yet to be finalised.
Australian
Province planning activity is underway and that includes Samoa and
Fiji. In a few days time youths who have been associated with Don
Bosco House in Suva since they were ten years of age and who are now in
their late teens and early twenties, are planning to meet this weekend
to look at their own plans for spiritual growth and apostolic
activity. There is little doubt that WYD will be at least on
their
lips and in their hearts.
___________________
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