Young Catholics go down under

World Youth Day is underway down under in Australia this week with more than 150,000 pilgrims--more than expected or registered, but not much compared to past events.

The pilgrims were welcomed by a text message from the pope, Zenit News Agency reported: "Young friends, God & his people expect much from u, because u have within u the Father's supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus -- BXVI." Who knew B16 was down with txt talk?

An interesting take on this event: The coordinator also told Zenit that this would be Australia's most green large-scale gathering. Pilgrims will be walking or using public transport. Australians have been planting trees to offset the carbon produced by those traveling by plane to Australia, and Australian airlines Qantas provided a carbon-offset program for pilgrims. Packaging has been kept to a minimum and recycling is being maximized. Pilgrims were given flashlights with reusable batteries and are asked to keep showers to three minutes.

Unfortunately, the teens are apparently not hygienic enough to keep the flu from spreading, according to News.com.au.

The greenest option for "participating" in the event: You can catch almost all of the activities online at the WYD site without traveling anywhere. In some of the videos you can hear the officeal WYD 2008 song, Receive the Power, by Guy Sebastian, who besides being a Catholic singer/songwriter, won the first Australian Idol contest in 2003. Perhaps youth groups will move on from "Our God is an awesome God" to "Alleluia, Alleluia! Receive the Power, from the Holy Spirit."

Though I know a few who went, I don't remember paying much attention to the WYDs when I was a teen. Are teens logging on the the WYD site and following the events?