Frail Pope heading for World Youth Day in Canada

In an era of global terrorism and sex scandals in his church, a frail Pope John Paul will join young people from around the globe this week at World Youth Day festivities intended to invigorate spiritual devotion.

Fewer pilgrims than expected - just under 200,000 registered in advance - are converging on Toronto for the week of Roman Catholic teaching and prayer culminating in a final outdoor Mass with the pontiff, who heads to Canada tomorrow.

The lower attendance is attributed to the 82-year-old Pope’s declining health and uncertainty about overseas travel after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

While it could be the most lightly attended World Youth Day since John Paul initiated the gathering of young people in the mid-1980s, organisers said the exact numbers are unimportant in the context of what the event symbolises.

Amid the negative headlines of the day - the September 11 attacks, war in Afghanistan, the church’s sex scandals in the United States - the Pope brings a ‘‘profound message of salt and light, of flavour and hope,’’ said the Reverend Thomas Rosica, the World Youth Day chief executive officer.

‘‘Sometimes we can only appreciate the light against the background of darkness,’’ Rosica said.

Everything about the World Youth Day is big, from the 160ft cross towering over the site of the final Mass to the 7,000 portable toilets and 750,000 rolls of toilet paper ready for use.

A strike by city rubbish collectors was quickly wrapped up, giving workers time to clean up stinking mounds of refuse around the city.

Police promise heightened but unobtrusive security, with thousands of officers from Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Toronto city force on duty.

The pilgrims, aged 16 to 35, are coming from 170 countries for activities beginning July 22 that include catechism classes with bishops, social service, a welcoming ceremony with the Pope, re-enacting the stations of the cross, and an all-night vigil followed by the final Mass.

The July 28 Mass at an air field spanning an area the size of 180 football pitches is expected to attract half a million people or more.

Some are volunteers, like Kai-Moritz Keller of Germany, who has been helping answer telephones at World Youth Day headquarters.

The experience has been so positive he wants a bigger role if the next World Youth Day is held in Cologne, Germany, in 2005, as rumoured.

‘‘It is quite amazing that people come from all over the world who believe the same thing,’’ Keller said.

The visit to Canada is part of a trip that also takes John Paul to Mexico and Guatemala - a strenuous journey that the pontiff insisted on making despite increasing frailty.

John Paul struggles with the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease - heavily slurred speech and trembling hands - and is slowed by knee and hip ailments that make it difficult for him to walk or even stand.

For the Pope, the World Youth Day has become a symbol of his papacy.

The annual gathering grew out of John Paul’s invitation to young people to Palm Sunday in Rome during the 1984 Holy Year.

He did it again in 1985 during UN International Year of Youth, and the event became the first official World Youth Day in Rome in 1986.