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.

Sydney - Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to Australia got off to a slow start Monday with quality time spent with a grand piano and a clutch of kittens.

The 81-year-old pope, famously fond of music and cats, arrived in Sydney on Sunday ahead of this week's World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations that have drawn around
125,000 pilgrims from abroad.

The German-born pontiff's first three days in Australia are his own, to be spent in rest and relaxation at a rural retreat on Sydney's outskirts following a 23-hour flight from Rome.

"We wanted to make it a genuine house of welcome for the Holy Father and to make it a place where he can really recharge his batteries after the longest flight he's ever done," said WYD head Danny Casey.

Sydney  -

Sydney - Notori

Sydney - Even jaded business travelers were smiling Friday as gleeful pilgrims rejoiced in Sydney airport at the prospect of a week of spirited worship organized by the Catholic Church and presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.

The pope doesn't arrive in Australia's biggest city until Sunday and the World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations don't kick off until Monday but it was joy unbounded as the first of 125,000 young Christians swept through the arrivals terminal on their way to a date with the 81-year-old pontiff.

WYD, begun in Rome in 1986 and held somewhere in the world every three years, is sometimes called the Catholic Olympics because of its uplifting spirit and power to bring hundreds of thousands of people together in the one place.

Sydney - A marine biologist Thursday poured cold water on claims that a 7-metre great white shark is