World Youth Day proved a powerful experience for many, and the happy informality of the tens of thousands of young people became infectious in Sydney, irrespective of people's religious beliefs.
Rock stars would have envied Pope Benedict's ability to draw such vast crowds, but many church personnel were perturbed that a great opportunity was lost to demonstrate how intrinsic to the Gospel was concern for peacemaking, social justice and ecological sustainability.
The irony is that many younger people are passionately concerned about such matters, as Bono and the rock group U2 can attest with their mobilising of younger generations to the cause of the Millennium Development Goals.
Yet the main World Youth Day events failed to highlight a key biblical message: that God will judge us on how we have responded to the needs of the poor, sick, hungry and imprisoned. Jesus meant to shock his hearers. Piety is worthless in God's eyes if it ignores one's social responsibility, since God identifies intensely with people in distress.
World Youth Day offered an unprecedented chance to demonstrate how directly religious beliefs bear on urgent social issues such as social equity, world hunger, the energy crisis, global warming, the MDGs and peacemaking.
True, Benedict congratulated the new Australian government for its apologies for injustices against our indigenous peoples and commended Australia's role in international peacekeeping.
Later he added that 'non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity'.
But these crucial themes then vanished from centre stage, though many smaller events on the margins dealt with such issues, especially those organised by religious orders or social agencies like Caritas or Vinnies.
The neglect of the Church's own social justice teaching was doubly puzzling, since Benedict has spoken often on world poverty, climate change, the food crisis in many countries, along with threats from nuclear weapons, cluster bombs and the flourishing arms trade.
Benedict frequently discusses these issues with world leaders. To French President Sarkozy on 12 September he highlighted the role of religion in helping address social justice, protecting the environnement and human rights, and peace and reconciliation among peoples.
He wrote to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June, urging renewed determination to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. And at his meeting with President George W. Bush on 13 June, the Pope raised the topics of the food crisis, the Millennium Development Goals, globalisation and the recent economic setbacks, along with threats to peace.
Benedict in April renewed calls to cut military spending — currently at $US1.3 trillion a year, nearly half of that from the United States — and direct the savings into economic development. Even five per cent of this amount could help lift hundreds of millions out of hunger and poverty.
Before the UN General Assembly meeting of 25 September, Benedict again appealed for urgent support for the Millennium Development Goals. The head of Caritas International, Cardinal Rodriguez, welcomed the additional $US16 billion pledged, but contrasted this with efforts to put $US700 billion to avert the US financial crisis. More substantial funding for the Millennium Development Goals would help save the lives of up to 10 million children a year.
The side-lining of the social dimension at World Youth Day reflects a growing tension in the churches, between those focused on internal church matters and piety, and those engaged with wider issues of social wellbeing.
There is widespread concern in Christian circles that some religious leaders are not doing enough to promote their churches' social teaching. One has only to consider the Australian Catholic bishops' lacklustre response to the long debate over the invasion of Iraq. Some bishops spoke strongly, but others remained silent or made token gestures. In some large dioceses, justice and peace commissions remain tiny or have been down-sized.
Nevertheless, concern for peace and justice remains normative for Christians. On Social Justice Sunday on 28 September the National Council of Churches distributed a statement, Faces of poverty, and the Catholic bishops, A rich young nation: the challenge of affluence and poverty in Australia.
Australians of many beliefs will be interested in Pope Benedict's forthcoming document on globalisation. He will presumably stress that concern for social justice is an essential part of the Church's mission, and must not be downplayed as if it were a secular rival to the Gospel.
LINK:
Millenium Development Goals
Father Bruce Duncan is one of the founders of the advocacy group, Social Policy Connections, and coordinates social justice studies at Yarra Theological Union in Melbourne.