(From our correspondents in Sydney) – Aboriginal elders will greet Benedict XVI at Sydney’ Rose Bay with a "special dance for the Pope", Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said today: as a way to "welcome someone who is not coming as a colonizer or an enemy, but as a friend and spiritual father". The Pope will then get on board the boat with 16 youths coming from the five continents: there will be 4 Australians amongst them an Aborigine, a Navy sailor, a Vietnamese immigrant and a descendent from ancient immigrants to the country who will describe to the Pope the different place they will meet during the cruise and the history they evoke. After arriving at Barangaroo, a guard of honor made up of 43 Aboriginal elders, "the region’s guardians", "will greet the Pope and deliver him to WYD youths". The Aboriginal presence is particularly felt in this WYD. As Graeme Mundine already mentioned, Catholic Aboriginal representative in the dedicated body within the Ecumenical Council of Australian Churches (Natsicc), "for our Community it will be an appropriate time to reiterate our people’s courage". "I hope Mundine added that this will be a good opportunity to show young people and the whole world what our culture is all about in the right way, without thinking about the Aboriginal community only in negative terms".
