Archbishop of Sydney

Welcome

At Barangaroo
YWD 2008

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
17/7/2008

Holy Father,

Catholic Sydney has not provided a welcome like you received today as we travelled up the Harbour, since the first Irish Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Patrick Francis Moran arrived on September 8, 1884.  With a population of only 270,000 in those days, 20 steamers carrying thousands of Catholics, and decked with banners and flowers left Circular Quay to accompany his ship the Liguria arriving from Europe.  Tens of thousands also lined the shores of the harbour.  Archbishop Moran in his first homily explained that in Australia he had found “the same piety, the same love for religion, the same generosity and spirit of sacrifice” as marked “the old Church at home” in Europe.

Holy Father we hope you can arrive at the same conclusion during your time with us.

In our short history Australian Catholics generally have been strong supporters of the Pope.  We rejoice in this.

We welcome you among us as a man of faith and prayer, a man of learning and a famous teacher, who for decades has entered into dialogue with the other voices of our pluralist democracies.  We welcome you as a priest and bishop.

But most of all we welcome you as the successor of St. Peter, the man of rock on whom Jesus founded the Church.  In loyalty and prayer we welcome you as Pope and bishop of Rome.

The papacy is ancient.  Not as ancient as our aboriginal peoples who lived on this harsh continent for tens of thousands of years even before the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.  They have already welcomed you to our land.

But more than 900 years before there was a King of England there was a Pope in Rome.  St. Peter was leading the small persecuted Christian community in Rome more than 1700 years before European settlement on the East Coast here.

As Pope you follow in the footsteps of your beloved predecessor Pope John Paul the Great, who founded the World Youth Day tradition and visited us twice in Australia.  We remember him with great admiration and love.

Holy Father you are among friends.  Not merely your children, brothers and sisters in the Catholic faith, but friends from the length and breadth of our continent and especially from the other Christian communities.

You are welcome among us and we pray that your visit will strengthen us, just as Our Lord prayed that the faith of Peter would not fail because he must continue strengthen his brothers (Lk. 22:31-2)