MELBOURNE, Australia, JULY 23, 2012 (Zenit.org).- World Youth Day 2013 will kick off in exactly one year, and groups from Australia are already well under way with preparations.
Some 15 pilgrimage coordinators from Down Under just returned home from an investigative trip to Rio de Janeiro, where World Youth Day will begin July 23, 2013.
Some 2,000 Australian pilgrims are expected to attend the South American event.
«I am excited about the main events such as the Opening Mass and Welcome of the Pope which will be held along the very famous Copacabana Beach. With the amazing city of Rio de Janeiro to one side and the backdrop of sand and sea to the other it will be the perfect setting for a Brazilian World Youth Day,» said Brendan Lindsay, coordinator of the Victorian Dioceses Pilgrimage, in a statement.
The pilgrimage leaders saw how the city of Rio is preparing, with World Youth Day 2013, the Soccer World Cup 2014, the Olympics 2016 and the recent Rio+ 20 Summit.
When Australia hosted World Youth Day in 2008, it drew the largest, most multinational crowd the country has ever hosted, even more so than the 2000 Olympics.
