"Experience of God and Traps of New Age" is the theme of a day in preparation of the WYD in Sidney, in 2008, proposed to the youth of the diocese of Melbourne on August 5th. It is just a preparatory stage which the local archbishop, Msgr. Denis James Hart, planned to help his youth "to answer the invitation for Sydney by Benedict XVI with joy". For the next months, numerous initiatives are already being prepared: street evangelization, testimonies in schools and squares, music and cultural events, all of them focussing on the WYD. "The Sidney days, and in particular, the meeting with the Pope says the diocese of Melbourne are precious opportunities for all the youth in Oceania, who will thus be able to think over the transcendent dimension of life, and to recover their relationships with God. The WYD will be an opportunity to awaken faith consciousness as well as the identity of the Australian Catholics, and a means of evangelization for all those who don’t know the message of Christ, yet". The diocese of Melbourne, too, in the same way as all the other dioceses of Australia, will welcome the Cross and the Marian icon of WYD: arrival of the symbols’ pilgrimage scheduled on April 26th; departure on May 10th, 2008.
