Why is it so difficult for the world media to get an accurate estimate of the number of participants at the massive World Youth Day gatherings? I sense some bias here.
The BBC this morning said "hundreds of thousands" while the New York Times reports "more than a million." Participants on the ground told me over the phone that there were "about two million people" at the airstrip today for the closing Mass. Finally, I googled the question in Spanish and the first hit from a Spanish daily paper said 1.5 million, which, the Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said would be a very safe estimate.
Is the world's media afraid to admit that there are still many many youth in the world who are capable of and actually enjoy good clean fun and that the Pope is well suited in leading them in that noble action? I would think that we could get more accurate estimates in our age of such great sophistication in such a controlled and examined event viewed by the most savvy journalists. Enough with the anti-Catholic foul play. It is prime-time for the media and for the world to admit that the Catholic faith is relevant, very relevant today, just as relevant as ever.
Apropos, Jesus Himself, in the Gospel reading of today's Mass (Mt. 16:19) tells Saint Peter (the first Pope) that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church: the Catholic Church, the Church built on Peter the Rock. Well, perhaps the world media might fit nicely in the "gates of Hell" category in downplaying the magnificence and wonder of the thriving of the Church of Peter in our antagonistic age. Christ Himself promises: "they will not prevail!" The Church of Peter will prevail!!! Why, because Jesus Christ guarantees it and He is alive and real and is with His Church and with the Pope and with all who are with Him in the unity of the Papal faith.