"Dear families, friends and supporters: just because you cannot be in Sydney, this does not mean that you cannot live the WYD experience from home". This is the message that young New Zealanders have sent their compatriots who stayed home and for whom the Church has provided a virtual space, "Connect" (www.connect.org.nz), to "fully live" Sydney’s WYD and "be in touch with Christ, the Church and everybody else". It is a "national diary", with many pictures and videos to live the Sydney experience "in real time". Actually, several local churches have done the same as New Zealand and have decided to set up a virtual space so that people in Sydney could share their experience with people at home: the Spanish Church, with her blog administered by the Bishops’ Conference department for the Pastoral Care for Youth www.jmjsydney2008.blogspot.com, the French-speaking group of the Swiss Church with her jmj blog at www.jmj.ch/~blog, the Italian Church with her Gmg2008 website (www.gmg2008.it) developed by the National Service for the Pastoral Care for Youth. For the same reason, the US Bishops’ Conference has trained 22 "young reporters" in June who are currently broadcasting "The 2008 WYD Virtual Pilgrimage" (www.mycatholicvoice.com/wyd2008).
