I am leaving the office now and heading up town. I will walk some ways to take a few pictures and then retire to my room, of course, I need to get my sweethearts something from Toronto . . .but what?

There is going to be a lot of people at the Sunday Papal mass, especially since it has now been opened to the public. It has been opened to the public because the numbers for WYD are lower than what was originally anticipated.

I have a lot of thoughts about what has gone on here. One thing I will say is that it has had a positive effect on me. After the scandal broke, my respect for the hierarchy and anything hierarchical was down to nill. I'm still close to there but meeting many individual bishops here has done something to restore my faith in something, I'm not sure what. Anyway, i've always felt that it is not the men that are the problem it is the structure. individually, priests and bishops always turn out to be very nice people, but when they are plugged into the system, things fall apart.

I think the kids have gotten a lot out of this experience. I'm still not convinced that conservatives and the hierarchy have connected with the young people. I think that the presence of so many young people here has been interpreted to mean that the Church is fine and young people are on fire for the Church. Well, not quite. They love and adore the Pope, but many could care less about many issues that are flash points for orthodoxy and when pressed, their thoughts do not necessarily jive with conservative views. I call them walking contradictions, and often i put myself in that category. You may be passionate about your church and not see anything inherentlly worng with being a cafetaria Catholic.

WYDays are always great ways to get young people involved, I hope parishes and diocese would follow up.