World Youth Day ended in Sydney, Australia, yesterday with a papal Mass attended by "only" 350,000 people -- far less than any of the other WYD papal Masses.
But Australia is such a long -- and expensive -- journey for most of the world's inhabitants it can't be a surprise that the numbers were down.
WYD had 225,000 registered participants and organizers said they expected an equal amount of Australian Catholics to attend the final Mass. But from my experience with Australia, only about 2 percent of the public goes to church. Like Europe, Australia is virtually a post-Christian continent.
* * *
I thought it was pretty hip of Pope Benedict XVI to send daily text messages to registered pilgrims. He signed them all "BXVI."
* * *
The Lambeth Conference is taking place in England. This is a once-every-10-years conference for the Anglican Communion, which now is going through more visible turmoil than any other Protestant denomination.
It will be interesting to see what develops at the conference. Ohio Bishop Mark Hollingsworth is there and blogging.
* * *
The Cleveland Indians are playing so well lately, I wonder if there's any chance they could still make a run for it. It seems that they woke out of their slumber after the management gave up for the season and traded ace pitcher C.C. Sabathia.
The Tribe is sitll a long way out but stranger things have happened in baseball. I'm hoping the Indians work their way into a pennant race.
* * *
Sylvania, Ohio
July 21, 2008