Sydney - They came, they saw, they concurred: Catholic pilgrims flooding Sydney on Monday reckoned that meeting Pope Benedict XVI was certain to be the highlight of the World Youth Day celebrations that have brought 225,000 of them together in Australia's biggest city.

"Most of all, we come to see the Holy Father," said Pune-born Tushar Acetush, 28, one of 600 pilgrims from India. "Friends who were in Cologne [the 2005 German host city] said that it was what touched them the most."

Rose Cairns-Morrison, 17, one of 4,500 pilgrims from New Zealand, said getting a glimpse of the 81-year-old pontiff was tops. "People who go to Rome sometimes don't get to see him, but we are certain to see him here," she said.

Rose, who sold cakes to raise money for the three-hour flight from Auckland, said it was exhilarating to be among so many people sharing the same faith.

"You are in an environment where everybody is young and Catholic," she enthused. "There'll be heaps of life-changing moments."

Father Mark Podesta, who at the age of 31 is the youngest ordained priest in Sydney, said the pilgrims - 125,000 from abroad and 100,000 locals - are "striving for things that aren't the easiest options" and that the gathering would bring "a sense of belonging, a sense of solidarity" to their quest.

"It's such an exciting time for young people like me who share the same passions, the same ideas and the same thoughts that I have," Podesta said.

Podesta is the spokesman for World Youth Day, which opens officially Tuesday and closes with Sunday Mass given by the German-born pontiff for up to 500,000 people.

The highlight for many was likely to be the official arrival of the Holy Father on Thursday. It's an entrance choreographed for television: aboard a boat, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as a splendid backdrop.

Ana Crystal Molinar, one of 8,000 pilgrims from Mexico, plans to get her first look at Benedict when he sails into the harbour, but she said she expected the Mass on Sunday to provide her most cherished moment of the gathering.

"We sleep under the stars and then everybody holds candles and then the dawn comes and then there's the pope," she said. "I saw all the television pictures from Cologne, and it was awesome. That's going to be the best."

Cardinal George Pell, the leader of Australia's 5 million Catholics, has been at pains to stress that the celebrations are about spirituality.

"Young people coming to it are not coming for a rock concert or for a sporting contest," said Pell, the archbishop of Sydney. "They are coming as pilgrims, as people have traveled for thousands of years, as tourists with a religious purpose."

The joyousness of the pilgrims has charmed almost all of Sydney's 4 million residents. The carping about traffic congestion, loss of business and trains packed to bursting has fallen away.

There are still those moaning about the expense to taxpayers and, amazingly, the unashamedly religious nature of the festivities.

"We believe in religious liberty, but as a young secular person, World Youth Day is a misleading title," protest organizer Jason Ball said. "It sounds like it's an all-inclusive event, and it's offensive."

But Ball and his chums would be hard-pressed to rain on this parade. dpa