World Youth Day Sydney Makes Pope Nostalgic For Past
POPE Benedict XVI is a champion of youth and World Youth Day:
At the age of 14, he joined the Hitler Youth, as was required of young Germans of the time, but was not an enthusiastic member.
And now he’s celebrating World Youth Day, a time of freedom and youthful fun:
New regulations give police and emergency services workers the power to order anyone to stop behavior that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event,” according to a New South Wales state government gazette. Anyone who does not comply faces a $5,300 fine.
The laws will apply in dozens of areas of downtown Sydney — including the city’s landmark opera house, train stations and city parks — that are designated venues for World Youth Day, a Catholic evangelical festival at which Pope Benedict XVI will conduct mass and lead prayer meetings when he visits.
Plus ca change…
July 1st, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Will he be wearing his Jack Boots under his Cassock?
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:24 am
I shall be wearing my “Sponsor a lion - 300,000 Christians, 1 stadium” t-shirt with pride (no pun intended)
July 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
While Pope Benedict was a member of Hitler Youth - it was compuslory - he didn’t attend meetings. Also he abandoned his post (desertion), shortly after being conscripted into the German army. He was about as brave as you could get away with being back then.
He was also very close to the previous pope. Most of JP2’s close personal friends were Jews he’d grown up with in Poland.