Clock Counts Down: World Youth Day Begins

A 500-Day Countdown Clock is to Zero. The youth event began Tuesday morning local time in Australia, and will culminate on Sunday with an open-air Mass, presided over by Benedict XVI, at Randwick Racecourse.

SYDNEY, Australia (Zenit) - It felt like New Year's Eve as pilgrims gathered in front of St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney for the final countdown to World Youth Day.

The youth event began Tuesday morning local time in Australia, and will culminate on Sunday with an open-air Mass, presided over by Benedict XVI, at Randwick Racecourse.

Pilgrims gathered around the countdown clock in front of the cathedral, which has been counting down for the last 500 days. The crowd shouted out in unison the final ten seconds to midnight before it erupted with an elated "Happy World Youth Day!"

The pilgrims will kick off six days of intense activity Tuesday afternoon with an opening Mass at Barangaroo, where more than 140,000 are expected to attend. Cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, will preside at the event.

Archbishop Phillip Wilson of Adelaide told ZENIT he is confident of the positive effects the pilgrimage is having on the nation's faithful youth already. The archbishop is also the president of the Australian episcopal conference.

"I've really witnessed Christ in the activities of the last few days in my own Diocese of Adelaide and I'm certain that he will minister to these pilgrims in Sydney this week in abundance," he said.

Matthew Whan, of the Catholic Youth Services of Sydney, said at times the past 500 days have gone both slowly and rapidly.

"It's been a fabulous and, at times, frantic ride and now our groups are looking forward to enjoying the week ahead and the benefits which will surely come!" said the leadership training program coordinator.

Whan and his team were behind the gathering of over 17,000 registrations for World Youth Day from around the Sydney Archdiocese alone.