来来来，同参与。World Youth Day irrelevant to youth, survey

报道说,刚才city停顿了，因为朝圣者运送十字架

以下转篇评论，数字说话，主流是那些人？如果多数是主流，那显示并非如传统主流门想象那样的。

大家都议论英文，那来吧，如果看不懂，不要紧，赶紧离开澳坛，恶补一年半载再回来拍转，哈哈。。。。。。


AS the Catholic community gears up for World Youth Day in Sydney, a survey has found most young Australians consider it and the Church\'s teachings irrelevant.

The world’s largest youth event begins tomorrow and will attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims but a MySpace survey has revealed 77 per cent of respondents felt the Catholic Church was out of touch with youth.

The survey was completed by 650 people aged between 14 and 24 years, with 65 per cent of non-Christians saying World Youth Day held no relevance for them at all.

Of all participants, 53 per cent said they couldn’t get involved in World Youth Day “because of the Church’s stance on sexuality.”

According to the survey, most young people disagreed with central Catholic beliefs.

The vast majority of respondents (89 per cent) were opposed to abstaining from sex until marriage, with more than 28 per cent admitting to having sex before reaching the legal age of consent.

The survey also found that 61 per cent of young people supported contraception over abstinence as the best method to prevent unplanned pregnancy and the transmission of sexual diseases.

MySpace conducted the survey because nearly half of its users are young people.

There are 2.6 million Australian visitors to the social networking site, with more than 1 million aged between 12 and 24 years, according to Nielsen Online, Netview, in May 2008.

A MySpace Australia spokesperson said a discussion blog on World Youth Day was held along with the survey, where users expressed a wide variety of opinions.

“What we found is that the survey and also the discussion blog were used by youth to debate the issue from both sides - there was a mixture of views,” she said.

“People were sharing views and fighting - they were passionate about their views, and it was a very intelligent discussion.”

A World Youth Day spokeswoman said the event would attract 125,000 international pilgrims and 100,000 Australians, with the majority of attendees aged between 18 and 35 years.

“Open to all, the event is about young people coming together in peace to explore issues such as faith, church teachings and issues facing young people,” she said.

“World Youth Day is funded from several sources - the largest being the pilgrims themselves through their registration fees. Other funding sources include the Catholic Church, corporate affiliates and merchandising.”

A diverse selection of quotes from the MySpace discussion blog are included below.

“Sure, have the \'day\', just make sure you call it World Catholic Youth Day, and don\'t waste so much money on a stupid event that could be much better spent elsewhere. I think it\'s stupid that so much money has been spent on something religious when the state and religion are supposed to be separated.” (Kelsey-Lee, QLD)

“AUSTRALIA IS SO LUCKY TO BE HOSTING WYD, besides in a world of so much pain what is so wrong with having a bit of God’s love.” (Ross, 17, NSW)

“There are extremely thoughtful people in this world who have no interest in religion what so ever. I am going to Tanzania, Africa next year to volunteer teach in local schools. I want to do it not because Christ is in my heart but because I know what’s right and what’s wrong, I THINK FOR MYSELF.” (Melliecopter, 17, Newcastle)

“Yes, the government is footing the bill for a lot of the stuff, but only because of the influx of revenue this will bring to its coffers through tourism and all the other related industries. You talk only about what it will cost, not what it will generate financially..!” (Cez, 26, NSW)

“During WYD08, more than 18,000 children in 40 Catholic-majority countries, will die. Every 30 seconds of the event, 1 Catholic child will die from hunger and/or poverty-related causes.
Around the world, more than 166,000 children under 5yo will die in those 6 days. That\'s 27,786 dead children each day. 1 every 5 seconds. WYD08 = Cost $100M ... while children starve.” (Gomer Pyle, 21, QLD)

“WYD is about inspiring young Christians to live their lives in the path of Jesus.
Whether or not you believe in God is irrelevant. If someone believes, and it inspires them to do good things, then that\'s great. Why are you criticising WYD and its costs, when there are people who spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars each year buying tickets to see their favourite bands? While children starve, there are people living in mansions, driving luxury cars and spending money on plasma screen TV\'s, backyard swimming pools, fancy clothes etc etc etc.” (Flangelica, 18, VIC)

“You\'ve missed the point completely, the Catholic church rakes in the biggest amount of money each year and yet this event, which the church is paying little towards, is being held in the upper middle class regions for upper middle class youth. I\'m no genius; but feeding the hungry costs less, am I right?” (Jonathen, 17, QLD)

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” (Tashi, NSW)

“I think it’s ridiculous that we are paying for such a stupid thing -our tax dollars could be spent on something much better and worthwhile. Also if it was another leader from a different religion, for example Muslim the Australian government would hardly be supporting an event like WYD in fact they would probably be banning it!” (Laura, 19, NSW)