Pope on his way to World Youth Day
Reuters
Pope Benedict has left the Vatican for the longest foreign trip of his papacy, a 10-day visit to Australia to attend a major Catholic youth festival.
World Youth Day is expected to draw more than 200,000 young Catholics to Sydney for six days of events.
During his visit, the Pope will also meet Aborigine groups.
He is also likely to repeat an apology made by Pope John Paul to the region's indigenous people for injustices carried out by Catholic missionaries.
Before leaving, Benedict XVI said he was "filled with a great desire to meet the youth of the entire world to exhort them to become courageous
witnesses of the love of Christ", the Vatican reported.
He arrived in Fuimicino by helicopter from Castel Gandolfo.
Reuters
The Pope's 20-hour Alitalia flight to Australia departed from Rome at 1030 (0830 GMT).
The 81-year-old pontiff is due to spend some days at a retreat outside Sydney before appearing at the head of a Sydney Harbour flotilla on Thursday.
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Pope Benedict is on his way to Sydney, with World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims and Australian Catholics abuzz with excitement over his arrival on Sunday.
But Sydney may not be the first place the pontiff touches Australian soil on his first visit Down Under.
His long flight from Rome is scheduled to make an hour-long refuelling stopover in Darwin early Sunday before he flies on to Richmond Air Base, though
it's not known whether he will leave the plane in the Northern Territory capital.
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The pontiff will touch down at the western Sydney RAAF base about 3pm (AEST) and will rest for four nights after completing the longest international flight of
his life before leading the six-day WYD event.
Tens of thousands of international and local Catholic pilgrims continue to flood into Sydney in preparation for the Pope's official welcome to the city on Thursday.
The final Papal Mass at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse is expected to attract more than 500,000 people, including about 125,000 international pilgrims,
organisers say.
Reuters
In Sydney's west, more than 3,000 teenage pilgrims braved the winter chill to "camp" indoors in large industrial sheds at Sydney's Olympic
Park.
"It's a bit cold, but we are all so happy to meet people from other countries and to have everyone come together," 16-year-old Marcele Frezon from Brazil said.
Sydney's bitter winter weather is proving a problem for some pilgrims who have arrived unprepared for the cold.
Organisers have been busily collecting warm clothing, blankets, beanies and sleeping bags for pilgrims from nations unaccustomed to cold weather.
Many pilgrims from tropical Pacific islands, as well as some Asian and African nations, have arrived without enough, or any, warm clothing despite pre-event
information advising them what to expect.
Pope on his way to World Youth Day
Video clip
AP
Pope expresses worry about climate change
AP - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday he wants to wake up consciences on climate change during his pilgrimage in Australia.
Benedict also told reporters while flying to Sydney to start a 10-day visit that he would work for "healing and reconciliation with the victims" of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy there "just as I did in the United States" earlier this year.
Less than an hour after the pope's flight took off from Rome, Benedict walked back to the section where journalists sat and met with them for about 15 minutes. He called on five journalists to ask questions that had been submitted to the Vatican earlier in the week.
One asked about climate change following discussions on the environment during this month's G-8 summit in Japan.
There is a need to "wake up consciences," Benedict responded. "We have to give impulse to rediscovering our responsibility and to finding an ethical way to change our way of life."
Benedict said that politicians and experts must be "capable of responding to the great ecological challenge and to be up to the task of this challenge."
"We have our responsibilities toward Creation," Benedict said, stressing, however, that he had no intention of weighing in on technical or political questions swirling around climate change.
Benedict said he would address the problem of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
Pope expresses worry about climate change
AFP Getty
Pope Benedict XVI says he wants to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and wake up consciences on climate change during his pilgrimage in
Australia.
Benedict told reporters while flying to Sydney to begin a 10-day visit for World Youth Day that he would apologise to victims of sexual abuse by Catholic
clergy in Australia "just as I did in the United States" earlier this year.
Pope to apologise for abuse by priests
Pope to address rights issues
THE Pope will speak in defence of the "trampled" rights of indigenous Australians when he flies into Sydney for World Youth Day celebrations.
On the eve of the Pope's historic visit to Sydney tomorrow, the Vatican press office said the plight of Aborigines "and their rights trampled for centuries" would be a key topic of the "Pope's words as well as in the addresses of civil authorities".
Father Frank Lombardi, a member of the papal entourage, was quoted as saying that Aboriginal rights would be a theme of the Pope's national speaking
engagements at a briefing of journalists in Rome before the Pope's arrival. His comments were carried by the Catholic news agency Zenit...
AP
The Pope has already signalled he will honour Aboriginal culture when he wears specially designed vestments at the closing Mass at the end of the week. On the
back of the chasuble will be the image of Marjorie's Bird, an indigenous adaption of the Holy Spirit. On the front panel will be the stars of the Southern
Cross.
The image of Marjorie's Bird, created by a Tiwi Islander, Marjorie Liddy, and featuring on the altar at Randwick racecourse, would be re-created in
white dots with a yellow crest, on a background of "outback red".
Pope to address rights issues
The Pope was pictured relaxing with the newspaper.
AP
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