Reporter: Peter Harvey
Producers: Jonathan Harley and Joanna Townsend
It's been quite a revelation - quite a week. A real pilgrim's progress. We have never seen so much goodwill, so much devotion in the streets of Sydney.
Sin city may never be the same again.
From the Pope's arrival last weekend to the huge mass at Randwick, it's been one big gig after another.
Hundreds of thousands of bright-eyed youngsters have made World Youth Day a world-wide hit.
Yes, there have been the doomsayers, the protesters and the victims with appalling stories of church abuse and neglect.
But you'd have to be a real curmudgeon not to recognise the joy, the spirit, the sheer exuberance of it all.
Full transcript:
STORY - PETER HARVEY: Not since the middle ages have so many pilgrims travelled so far in their search for their God. The young faithful came from all over the world, fanning out across Australia in the days leading up to the main event. This is Gunning Gap - a dot on the map out on the western plains of NSW.
BISHOP CHRIS TOOHEY: I have to travel to Sydney. It is a dream. A very big dream I have to do it.
PETER HARVEY: Bishop Chris Toohey was this group's shepherd. One of scores of church dignitaries playing minder to the scattered pilgrim party. Overnight, Australia's dwindling church-going numbers had been given a massive shot in the arm. Is World Youth Day an attempt by the Catholic Church to get back into the religion game?
BISHOP CHRIS TOOHEY: I don't think the Catholic Church is out of the religion game. It's not a case of having to get back into it. It's not a case, really, of having to fight some regard action against draining numbers. It's about celebrating what you actually have and encouraging people in that. The rest takes care of itself.
PETER HARVEY: A last sing-along, and a lamington to fortify themselves. And then it was on the bus for the big smoke. All over Sydney people have thrown their doors open to the flood of young Catholics.
NANETTE D’ARCY: We've got Fijians in here, Father John from Canada is in here.
PETER HARVEY: Nanette D'Arcy's home has become a motel. She's looking after posse of the 40,000 pilgrims billeted in private homes not counting the 100,000 more bunking down in churches and school halls. Now Nanette, do you segregate the sexes?
NANETTE D’ARCY: Yes. You have to have guidelines and after guidelines then that's their responsibility. But we've got guidelines for no smoking, guidelines for no food in the bedrooms, you know and ...
PETER HARVEY: No hanky-anky.
NANETTE D’ARCY: No hanky-anky.
PETER HARVEY: That's great.
NANETTE D’ARCY: Which one of you came in after midnight last night? PILGRIM: Me!
PETER HARVEY: For Nanette and husband Brian it's loaves and fishes time. Breakfast is standing room only when you're feeding 21 pilgrims. Why is the lid still on the vegemite jar? What's the matter with you guys? Laura have some vegemite. Like Canadian Laura Kavanagh. You've had a bad vegemite experience?
LAURA KAVANAGH: Yes.
PETER HARVEY: What are you looking for out of all of this at the end of it?
LAURA KAVANAGH: I think what I'm looking for is really to meet people from all over the world that share the same faith that I have and see just how great religion can be bringing together people from all over.
PETER HARVEY: A last-minute queue for the loo... ..and they're out the door. It's P-day. The Pope's on his way.
LAURA KAVANAGH: It's really cool, hey. All the boats.
PETER HARVEY: For Canadian Laura, and her fellow travellers catching a glimpse of their spiritual leader sail up Sydney Harbour will be the high point of their journey. Laura, my idea of a pilgrimage is somebody who is really suffering who is treading along a dusty road with a staff in one hand wearing a hair shirt and in pain, they're suffering. Are you suffering?
LAURA KAVANAGH: No, I don't think you need pain to find out where you're going. I think you just need a way.
PETER HARVEY: Leading this harbour-side papal cheer squad we found Patric Langrell. An awful lot of kids your age get their kicks from other things - sex and drugs and rock'n'roll. This is your bag, right?
PATRICK LANGRELL: This is it, and this is the bag of so many other thousands of young people around the world.
PETER HARVEY: He is high alright, high the spirit of God. Now I don't want you to think I am looking at this through rose-coloured glasses. But if what we're seeing this week represents the way today's kids celebrate their faith, then rock on! What 200,000 young people from all over the world has done this week is to demonstrate that the dry, dreary dusty formalised religion that I grew up with is finally, once and for all, dead and buried. Finally, Sydney Harbour turned it on as only Sydney Harbour can and Patrick's prayers were answered.
PATRICK LANGRELL: Hey here he comes, he's coming out now!
PETER HARVEY: Fantastic.
PATRICK LANGRELL: Oh my gosh, that is fantastic.
PETER HARVEY: I mean, how good is this for you?
PATRICK LANGRELL: This is just... on a scale... on the Richter scale of 1-10 about 100. He is, he's the big one we're all here to see. Just, let it rip with the crowd.
PETER HARVEY: Absolutely, but there he is right now, out there. Let the party begin, right?
PATRICK LANGRELL: Bring it on! Bring it on!
PETER HARVEY: Patrick is an old hand at this sort of thing. His regular gig is revving up the faithful in the back bar of a pub in Sydney's west. And this week it was a packed house.
PATRICK LANGRELL: Are you guys all happy? Having a great time?
PETER HARVEY: He calls it 'theology on tap'. There is a pint with every preacher.
PATRICK LANGRELL: I love it, it is truly inspiring, it helps me in my faith. Knowing there are so many other young Catholics out there on fire for the faith.
PETER HARVEY: It was a big night. Pilgrims from everywhere. Monks from America. Novice nuns from Europe. And just about every other nationality under the Catholic sun. Patrick, faith is a wonderful and mystical thing, but honestly, what came first - the beer or the belief?
PATRICK LANGRELL: It was definitely the belief. Being a Catholic Christian is something that defines us and it was definitely the idea of having a Catholic identity that really spurred me on to start a theology on tap.
PETER HARVEY: How do you think Jesus would react to the message being pushed in a pub?
PATRICK LANGRELL: Well, Jesus and alcohol worked together at different parts of his life, so I don't think he'd be too unfamiliar with that type of setting. But you know, I don't know. I'll probably ask Him when I... hopefully if I see Him.
PETER HARVEY: It looks like party time and in many ways it is, complete with Vatican bling. What are you getting out of all this, I mean, apart from the chance of having a drink? PILGRIM: I'm here to meet people. Here to catch up with the pilgrims, and have a drink with them, yeah.
PETER HARVEY: For some people, though, celebrating with the Catholics was the last thing on their minds. They were there to protest. A coalition of gay rights groups and civil libertarians rallied against this papal visit and the Catholic Church's rigid stance against homosexuality and contraception. Leading the push for reformation, 'Pope Alice' from outerspace.
LUKE ROBERTS: From being a Catholic, I am now an atheist, because I believe that all the religions and the prophets were inspired by contact with people from another planet, who wished to reveal themselves openly to us. Pope Alice has been visible to Australia for over 30 years.
PETER HARVEY: Pope Alice is the creation of Brisbane artist Luke Roberts. For years, he's campainged against the rigidity of Catholic dogma. I think the problem, mate, is that you're the ultimate party-pooper and the kids are here to have a good time.
LUKE ROBERTS: They are having a good time and I can be seen as a party-pooper but we're having our own party, Peter, and we've asked everyone to bring their frocks, and why can't we go down and party with the Christians?
PETER HARVEY: But there is nothing even remotely funny about the plight of young people who fell into the clutches of corrupt, abusive priests.
POPE BENEDICT XVI: Indeed I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured.
PETER HARVEY: Yesterday, the Pope said he was deeply sorry for 'evil acts' which had caused great pain.
POPE BENEDICT XVI: And I assure them that as their pastor I too, share their suffering.
PETER HARVEY: But it wasn't enough for Stephen Woods who, as a boy, was physically and sexually assaulted by three separate Catholic priests.
STEPHEN WOODS: We've heard apologies and words of regret before but, they're just words unless there's actions to back it up because the way the Church treats victims when they go to court is just hideous, absolutely hideous.
PETER HARVEY: Are you simply a voice crying out in the wilderness?
STEPHEN WOODS: No, because there's lots of us crying.
PETER HARVEY: It's been a week of powerful imagery and deep emotion. At this end of this pilgrimage of mine, I can't get away from this: it all reminds me of the way the church must have been in the very beginning and without all the controversy, all the hoopla, it is the mystery of the Mass that reaches deep into the hearts and souls of Catholics everwhere.
PATRICK LANGRELL: It's a life well lived, it's living the good life - being fulfilled and flourishing as an individual, as a human.
PETER HARVEY: When you look at contemporary Australia tell me what you hope this this week will mean?
PATRICK LANGRELL: How we can work together for the common good, how we can foster joy and the good values that all young people should aspire to bring.
PETER HARVEY: Does Australia need saving?
PATRICK LANGRELL: We all need saving. Australia, of course, definitely.
