In a short while -- it's Tuesday there already -- the World Youth Day festivities will get under way in Sydney, Australia. With more than 200,000 attendees from all over the world registered already, the week-long Catholic festival promises to be quite an event. The headlining act, of course, is the Pope himself who will lead a Papal Mass next Sunday.

Activities during the week will include workshops, concerts, and films. Highlights of the week include the Stations of the Cross, played out around Sydney and a camp-out at the local racetrack. The point of the event is to bring "together young people from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith."

It is also expected that the Pope will use the event to apologize for the Church's handling of sexual abuses by members of the clergy. "We have to consider what was insufficient in our behaviour and how we can prevent, heal, reconcile," said Pope Benedict aboard his plane on the down under. "This is the essential content of what we will say as we apologise." Meanwhile, protesters are planning to hand out condoms to the pilgrims as a means of speaking out against the pope's stance against birth control, homosexuality, and abortion.

I guess, if you're young and Catholic, Sydney is the place to be this week -- it's billed as the biggest youth-oriented event in the world.