"Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences", but "a search for the true, the good and the beautiful", said Benedict XVI today, in the speech he gave during the welcoming celebration by youth at Barangaroo, East Darling Harbour in Sydney. "It is to this end added the Pope that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this in truth, in goodness, and in beauty that we find happiness and joy". The Holy Father therefore exhorted the young: "Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth. Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything!" for he is "the Truth", "the Way and hence also the Life". On his arrival at Barangaroo, the Pope was given a festive welcome by a group of Australian aboriginal youth and youth from the Pacific area who sang native songs and also the "Tu es Petrus". "Standing before me I see a vibrant image of the universal Church", exclaimed the Pontiff. He also welcomed those "among us who are not Catholic or Christian", because "no one need remain on the outside" of the Church.
