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Dear young people,

Greetings to all of you in Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Doylestown. As you are viewing this I am in Sydney, with the young people of the world gathered, and so happy that you’re gathered in Doylestown, in union with so many of your brothers and sisters who are gathered for this World Youth Day. You know, this was a wonderful idea that Pope John Paul II had to gather the youth of the world together, time after time, in order that together you might express your faith, you might proclaim your faith, you might celebrate the Eucharist and celebrate the sacrament of penance you might build expression to your holy catholic faith.

What a wonderful thing it is, dear young people, who have made this extra effort to be here in Doylestown, to be together. You know, our holy father, Pope Benedict, is in Australia. He, as a successor of John Paul II, adds his great enthusiasm to what Pope John Paul II inaugurated as his extraordinary World Youth Day.

Dear young people, this is the time to realize the importance of your faith, to realize the importance of the witness that you give by coming together as young people! By showing that you believe in Jesus Christ and that you believe in his church, and that united with one another it is your intention, with God’s help, to change the world, to live according to the teachings of Christ and to show the world how happiness and joy and peace come from the observance of the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.   

Dear young people, I ask you to pray, to pray for our holy father, to pray for all the young people of the world, to pray for all those in need, and to realize that this is your mission as young people to spread the good news of Jesus Christ; to spread it by your words and your actions, by how you live and how you love and how you serve.

You see, you have a tremendous mission and today you are exercising that mission by coming together, by praying together and by together proclaiming your holy Catholic faith.

God bless you, young people, the church counts on you, our holy father Pope Benedict XVI counts on you and all of us look forward to the better world to which you will contribute by your energy, by your love, by your prayer. God bless you all.