Indifference towards the Catholic Church is more of a problem in Australia than hostility towards it, senior Catholic cleric George Pell has told Vatican Radio. Cardinal Pell, the head of the Catholic Church in Australia, said while there was "less hostility" to the Roman Catholic Church in Australia than in the United States, there was also "less enthusiasm".
"For us, indifference is the problem," he said.
Pell's comments came after Vatican officials noted Australia's secular nature, ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the country for World Youth Day (WYD).
"Australia is a nation continent that has been strongly secularised, and where Catholics are a minority," the Vatican's Youth Day pointman Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko said recently.
Benedict, the spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, frequently criticises what he describes as the secularism of modern societies such as Australia, Europe and North America, saying they have lost a sense of "transcendency."
As he did during his recent US trip, Benedict is expected to offer apologies to Australian victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Australian bishops issued an apology for past abuses in 2002 and Pell made it clear that papal comments on the issue would be "a welcome contribution."
"I think it would be appropriate for the Pope to say something on that score," he said.
Pell has become embroiled in scandal over a sex abuse claim just days before Pope Benedict arrives in the country.
It emerged this week Pell had dismissed a sex abuse complaint against a priest in 2003 because he gave weight to the priest's claim the encounter was consensual, despite the victim's protestations to the contrary.
Anthony Jones, now 54, was sexually abused by Father Terrence Goodall in 1982 and informed the church about it 20 years later.
In 2005, Goodall was convicted of indecently assaulting Jones after pleading guilty to the charges, but served no time in prison.
Pell re-opened investigations into Goodall after it emerged this week that phone taps had recorded the convicted priest saying the sexual encounter with Jones was not consensual.
On Thursday night, the church said Pell had referred the allegations to an independent panel.
Benedict is also expected to address the issue of Australia's still struggling Aborigines during the July 17 welcome ceremony, when indigenous dancers and singers will take centre stage.
Elders of the Gadigal people from the Sydney area's Eora nation will welcome Pope Benedict XVI at a location being kept secret for security reasons.
The Pope will then make his first public appearance in a so-called "boat-a-cade" on Sydney Harbour.
Aboriginal Catholics are playing a key role in WYD, with indigenous dancers and musicians also performing for Pope Benedict.
An indigenous message stick has been accompanying the WYD cross on its tour around Australia.
Catholics are the largest religious group among indigenous Australians, numbering 101,000 or 22 per cent, and they make up two per cent of all people identified as Catholics in the 2006 census.
The aged German pontiff, who arrives in Sydney on Sunday, will spend the first four days of his visit recovering from the long flight from Rome at a retreat run by the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei in Sydney's north-west.
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