The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics will lead a mission to rejuvenate the faith in Australia as part of World Youth Day 2008.
Speaking in English, Pope Benedict last night summoned pilgrims to Sydney for the six-day gathering of young Catholics, the church's biggest global event.
"I'm pleased to announce the next World Youth Day will be in Sydney, Australia in 2008," he said, ending a vigil Mass in Cologne, in his native Germany, attended by up to a million people from 193 countries.
The Pope's delivery contrasted with Juan Antonio Samaranch's stuttering Olympic announcement in 1993.
But it evoked an equally ecstatic response from the 2200-strong contingent of Australian Catholics who had gathered in a field - the site of a former coalmine - on the outskirts of Cologne.
The Australians were jubilant and unfurled a welcome banner, but the announcement came as no surprise since the Pope himself had jumped the gun 48 hours earlier, telling an Australian pilgrim Sydney would be the host city.
The event is expected to cost more than $80 million, about half that of Cologne, and will use Sydney's Olympic facilities.
The NSW Government will contribute $20 million value in kind, with an equal amount coming from the Federal Government and the rest from donations, corporate sponsorship, registration fees and church funding.
It will be the first visit to Australia of a Pope since John Paul II kissed the tarmac of Sydney Airport in 1995, when he beatified Australia's first saint-in-waiting, Mary MacKillop.
The visit rekindles Catholic hopes that the new Pope will come to Australia bearing the gift of MacKillop's canonisation, which still needs proof of a second miracle.
Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was said to have favoured relaxing the requirements for canonisation, eliminating the need for proposed saints to provide an authenticated miracle to be canonised.
The Australian church is also pinning its hopes on the papal visit to boost church attendance among the young and revive interest in priestly vocations and religious life.
The largest denomination in Australia, with 5 million followers, has been struggling to reverse declining church attendance and dwindling vocations to the priesthood. Rates of Mass attendance among young people are as low as in parts of Europe. In 2001, the attendance rate for Catholics in their 20s was about 7 per cent, slightly down on 1996.
In his homily, Pope Benedict, wrapping up his first foreign visit and triumphant return to his German homeland, urged young people to shun a "do-it-yourself" concept of religion in which they could choose what they wanted and disregard the rest. He criticised "a kind of new explosion of religion" that, if pushed too far, turned religion into something approaching a consumer product.
"Religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us," he said. "It may be comfortable, but at times of crisis we are left to ourselves."
World Youth Day is something of a misnomer since it is a week-long event, held every two to three years, a fusion of powerful religious symbolism, mass prayer and highly charged rock concert, with the Pope centre stage.
Up to 150,000 people are expected to attend the opening Mass and as many as 500,000 the Pope's final Mass, which would make it the largest public gathering in Australia since the Olympics.
Overseas pilgrims are expected to number about 85,000, slightly fewer than the 100,000 visitors who flocked to the 2000 Games but about twice that for a Commonwealth Games.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, the driving force behind Sydney's bid and leader in Cologne of an observation team of 25 which included the Tourism Minister, Sandra Nori, was delighted with the decision. He has ruled out any compulsory levy.
"It's a great privilege to have World Youth Day entrusted to the church in Australia," he said.
"World Youth Day is about bringing the faith of Jesus Christ and the reality of God's love to the youth of the world. I hope that many young people from Australia and overseas will come and deepen their faith through the experience."
World Youth Day 2008 Precious Moments...
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Australia ahead of World Youth Day, which will be held from July 15-20. The event is billed as the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock - five days of peace, love and Christianity.
Pilgrims from Australia celelebrated the news that the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day will be held in Sydney.
The 2008 World Youth Day cross , icon and message stick pilgrimage in Tahmoor heading to St Anthony's Catholic Church .
Surfing Bishop...
'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.' Acts 1:8
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