SYDNEY Australia (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI says a
"spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the world and
challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of
their time to create a new age of hope for humankind.

Speaking before some 350000 Roman Catholic pilgrims and a
likely television audience of millions more on Sunday
Benedict urged the young in his more than 1 billion-strong
flock to be agents of change because "the world needs
renewal."

The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of
Christians to build a world in "which God's gift of life
is welcomed respected and cherished - not rejected feared
as a threat and destroyed."

Benedict announced that as expected Madrid Spain would
host the next World Youth Day in 2011.