English Transcript

Cập nhật 21/07/2008 17:40:00

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict, left Australia today after an 8 day visit, during which he led World Youth Day celebrations and appealed to young people to dedicate their lives to the church to ensure its "renewal".

The celebrations took place over a week and attracted people from around the world. World Youth Day is one of the biggest celebrations of the Catholic faith. It was held in Australia's most populous city, Sydney, and it was attended by up to 400.000 pilgrims, including 125.000 from overseas.

During his visit the Pope enjoyed a rural retreat, a cruise on Sydney Harbour, a tour through the city in the so-called Pope-mobile and the opportunity to talk to young Catholic pilgrims about the challenges of maintaining faith in a modern world.

His visit culminated in a Papal Mass at Randwick Racecourse on Sunday. About 400.000 people took part in the mass - making it the largest single gathering in Australia's history.

Before leaving Australia, the Pope conducted a private mass for representatives of victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy. He listened to 4 victims' stories and offered consolation in the chapel of Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral.

The Pope is the spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics. There are more than 5 million Catholics in Australia.

According to Australia's Bureau of Statistics, 26% of the population identified themselves as being Catholic in 2006 - making Catholicism the largest single Christian denomination. Anglicans came next on 19%. Meanwhile, 19% of the Australian population stated they had NO religion.

Australia has no official state religion and people are free to practise any religion they choose, as long they obey the law. Australians are also free not to have a religion.

Australia is a predominantly Christian country, with around 64% of all Australians identifying as Christians. However, most other major religious faiths are also practised, reflecting Australia's culturally diverse society.

The number of people affiliated with non-Christian faiths exceeds one million and accounts for more almost 6% of the population. The biggest non-Christian religions are Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism.

For many Australians, their main link to the Catholic church is through the education system.
Parents can opt to send their children to Catholic schools. About 736.000 children and young people attend Catholic education institutions in Australia, ranging from kindergartens to universities.

Other Catholic institutions that are active in Australia include hospitals, homes for the elderly or disabled, orphanages, family counselling centres, as well as centres for education and social rehabilitation. There are some 63 Catholic bishops in Australia and 3.125 priests.

One-tenth of all the convicts who came to Australia in the First Fleet in 1788 were Catholic and at least half of them were born in Ireland. The huge influx of migrants who arrived in Australia after World War II included more than one million Catholics from countries such as Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Germany, Croatia and Hungary.