Fewer youths will attend World Youth Day than in previous years

Published: 2008-05-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- World Youth Day events typically draw hundreds of thousands of youths and in some countries they have reached or surpassed the 1 million mark. This year's event in Sydney, Australia, July 15-20 will be on a much smaller scale. The largest World Youth Day turnout was 4 million in Manila, Philippines, in 1995. Other big crowds include: 2 million in Rome in 2000; 1.6 million in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1991; 1.2 million in Paris in 1997; and 1 million in Cologne, Germany, in 2005. World Youth Day officials have been saying they expect 225,000 pilgrims to take part in this year's events, including 100,000 Australians. But local news reports have questioned if the projected figure is accurate, stating the final count may be significantly lower. Danny Casey, chief operating officer of World Youth Day 2008, said in a statement that World Youth Day officials have "always expected there would be high demand from young Catholics around the world to come to Australia for World Youth Day." He also noted that the World Youth Day office has received more than 168,000 international registration queries. "But we always anticipated that a proportion of those were unlikely to follow through with an actual registration because of a range of factors including distance and cost," he added.

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