World Youth Day has added a little to our research banks. “Pilgrims’ Progress 2008″ was a study conducted by the Australian Catholic University and Monash University. It examined the responses of 12,275 registered English speaking pilgrims from 164 countries who took part in an online survey and interviews prior to WYD08.

“The older group (ages 20-35) was very focused on spiritual values. They were making sacrifices to take a week out to come to WYD08, so they were not messing around. Their spirituality was very full-on and so was their approach to WYD08; they saw it as sacred time.

“The younger group (ages 15-19) were unabashedly attracted to all the aspects of WYD08 which naturally appeal to younger people; they loved the adventure of it, the excitement of being part of a huge youth crowd, travelling to a spectacular city, making new friends, celebrating? It might be a religious occasion, but it had lots of other appeal as well.”

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