When our editors first received an e-mail from the World Youth Day 2008 organizers offering a free trip to Australia for one of our writers, we thought it was a hoax. Luckily, our advertising director also received the e-mail, and brought it again to our attention.

It turned out that the offer was true.

The organizers of World Youth Day hosted Tim Drake and gave him a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for the big event. The result: You will be seeing several of his first-hand reports in our pages over the next few issues.

World Youth Day is a phenomenon destined to be as honored in Church history as any of the exploits of the great saints. Pope John Paul II used it as a tool to energize and redirect young people, and Pope Benedict XVI used it to great success in Cologne.

Our own Tim Drake has been a great chronicler of World Youth Days, showing how the Holy Spirit has reached many young men and women participants with a call to the priesthood and consecrated life.

Apart from conveying information about what plans are being made in Sydney, we hope Tim’s reports will serve another purpose: to show American parishes and families that it is possible to travel to Australia for World Youth Day.

It’s an integral part of the Register’s mission to give you the tools you need to take the greatest advantage of what the Church has to offer.

Visit WYD2008.org to find the very practical details you need, and to register your group.

This is one trip that can be life changing.