Youth Day, which is the largest youth event for the Catholic Church will be financed by the taxpayers of New South Wales, Australia. The government of New South Wales has released the details of the costs which go up to $86 million. The money used is to be spent on the costs of transportation, boarding, traffic management, medial, and security. This is exactly $86 million that is coming out of the taxpayers of New South Wales.
However, the total cost of the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day will run New South Wales $390 million. Interestingly enough, this cost is nowhere compared to the costs to finance the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
But, this is understandable as World Youth Day will bring a lot of business to New South Wales. Ever since the 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney, the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day will be the largest event in Australia, let alone Sydney.
It took awhile for the estimated figures to come out. The Sydney Morning Herald has tried to get access to very important documents pertaining to the costs of the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day. After awhile, the NSW Government had finally released such figures.
World Youth Day will be on July 20. This will be one month before the Summer Olympics will take place in Beijing, China.
Pope Benedict XVI will be giving an overnight vigil and Mass at the Randwick Racecourse. Currently, Pope Benedict XVI is on his first visit to the United States. He is addressing such hot button issues such as sexual abuse in the Catholic clergy.
On an interesting note, the Catholic Church is rapidly losing membership in the United States. Most of the Catholics that are under the age of 30 are Latino according to a survey conducted back in February. Many members that left have either dropped religion completely or converted to something else.