It has recently come to light that there are bets being placed on WYD Sydney. And no, it's not about whether the Pope will be a no starter, or if the rain will mean that the Pope's message will be downgraded to dead or indeed if the Popemobile can handle the cut-away rail before the home stretch- it is whether or not there will be a WYD at all!
While no one doubts the sincerity of the trainers demands and the likely disruption to the horses, it is a pretty ordinary way to start the one year count-down to the beginning of WYD in Sydney 2008. Yet again the attention is turned from the message to the garbage.
The media has an uncanny knack of taking something serious (and Catholic) and turning it into something of a spectacle. They would say that they are just doing their job. Funny how the Church seems to always come off second best. Of course for those who followed the debacle, they would be left with some doubt as to whether or not the Church had somehow botched another one.
One forgets or perhaps doesn't even know (since the media are always 'doing their job') that WYD, like any other major world event (Olympics, Soccer, Rugby and Cricket world cup) is awarded through a bidding process years in advance of the actual event. Now, either the Archdiocese of Sydney decided to bid for a major world event and then chose a place to hold it one year before it began and then made some outrageous demands, or someone sat on this information until it was going to be a bit more 'sexy'. What's more likely? Some would say a mere coincidence. I would say that the odds are ridiculous...
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