The golden lion of the Sri Lankan flag fluttered in the icy breeze at a bus stop crowded with pilgrims attending Sydney’s World Youth Day.
Beside the Sri Lankan colours pilgrims waved a pennant displaying the Indian tricolor.
 
Toward the back of the group, Pakistan’s flag billowed with the familiar crescent and star and the traditional Islamic green over a white background representing peace.
 
This small vignette from Sydney’s 2008 World Youth Day in which a group of sixty or so pilgrims from the restless Indian sub-continent come together in peace and harmony, was a clear indication of the power of such festivities.
 
For WYD 2008, Caritas Australia hosted a broad programme under the banner: Witness, Aspire, Act. Calling on people to engage with issues of justice, and in the words of Caritas Interantionalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, to act as true ‘global citizens’.
 
The Millennium Development Goals were centre stage at the Blueprint for a Better World exhibition. Calling for a renewed focus on the MDGs, Caritas Australia urged us all to be agents for change and to redouble our commitment, at the personal, community, national and international levels in order to grasp this opportunity to truly make poverty history.
 
Workshops on Climate Change in the Pacific heard how our brothers and sisters in the region are already reeling from the effects of rising sea levels, increased salinity eroding the productive capacity of arable land and the dying off of coral reefs which affects traditional fishing grounds.
 
‘The Unintended Pilgrimage’ was a powerful exposition of the terror which shrouds the lives of displaced people. Three young children from Darfur told their powerful stories in their own words prompting a rousing response from the packed crowd. True to the entire focus of Caritas WYD activities, the Darfur Australia Network explained how by getting involved people could make a real difference.
 
Thousands of people made a commitment to “Be More” when they returned home at the Caritas Australia YouTube centre, where people were able to film and upload their messages of faith, hope and solidarity and thereby publicise their commitments to the whole world via the internet.
 
Cardinal Rodríguez stole the show though when after finishing his discussion calling us all to “be more” in the world, he pulled out a saxophone and gave a rousing performance of some jazz numbers.
 
As the joy and celebration of WYD subsides, the commitments of the many thousands of people who attended the Caritas Australia “Blueprint for a better world” exhibition, will live on. Just like those pilgrims from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan who joined together to talk, listen and show how peace could be achieved.
 
Caritas Australia will offer plenty more examples of how we can all “Be More” in the world and will offer support to the growing numbers who want changed. Keep an ear out for us, we are planning on having a big impact. 

Read our full coverage of this event.