October 17, 2002

Thank you.

Your Eminence and members of the clergy, Mr. Premier and Members of the Legislature, Mayor McCallion, members of Toronto City Council, our Head Table, distinguished guests all.

I'd like to start by congratulating Cardinal Ambrozic on this, the 22nd Annual Charity Dinner and on the success of World Youth Day 2002.

What I saw in Rome in the year 2000 was a miracle.

500,000 young people showed their love and affection for their faith and their spiritual leader, a man of love and peace: Pope John Paul II.

I said to myself: myself, the 2002 World Youth Day must come to Toronto.

The Pope agreed and felt Toronto's reputation as a caring; loving, multicultural city would make it the perfect host for the 2002 event.

His holiness was right and a miracle occurred in Toronto this summer.

The rain was coming down in buckets and over 800,000 people were up to their ankles in mud when Pope John Paul II arrived at Downsview in his helicopter for Sunday mass.

We all watched him arrive and as he came onto the stage the skies parted; the rain stopped and the sun came through.

Now I don't want you to think that I am converting, but let me tell you: when the Pope and I get together, we really do control the weather in Toronto!

It truly was an incredible moment - but the real miracle of World Youth Day was what happened to our city during those seven days in July leading up to the Pope's arrival.

If you will recall, we had just wrapped up a garbage strike; Toronto was dirty and the city was in a foul mood.

Within three days, the garbage disappeared and along came the young pilgrims. Singing on streetcars and in parks. Hugging our citizens. Helping our elderly and our homeless.

There was no drinking. There were no drugs, and there was no fighting, just young people with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts, being happy and singing in the streets.

I heard stories of them singing songs to pregnant women and blessing babies!

Torontonians often take our streetcars for granted but here were young people from all over the world riding them for the fun of it! They loved our streetcars and our city.

Torontonians forgot about the garbage strike and fell in love with these beautiful young people from around the world.

Catholics and non-Catholics alike mentioned over and over again how wonderful this event was and how quickly the pilgrims had captured their hearts.

These pilgrims were telling us how lucky we were to have such a wonderful, clean city and you know what?

They were right.

World Youth Day 2002 did more than attract the faithful to Toronto.

It helped the citizens of Toronto fall back in love with our city, our parks and trees, our streetcars and our clean streets.

It's too bad it didn't rub off on some of the print columnists and editorial writers in the media.

Most important of all, we were reminded how lucky we all are to be alive and living in this great country and in the greatest city in the world.

The change in attitude by our citizens was miraculous and it can be attributed to World Youth Day 2002 and the incredible efforts of the Catholic Church.

There are many one-in-a-million events to experience in our lifetime. Seeing or hearing Elvis Presley live would have been a one-in-a-million experience; watching Muhammad Ali float like a butterfly would have been another.

But World Youth Day 2002 - seeing and hearing the Pope, this man of peace and love - this was not a one in a million event. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event if you're lucky - and it wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of the Archdioceses of Toronto.

An estimated 800,000 people filled Downsview for Sunday's mass.

I wish father Tom Rosica was here tonight so I could congratulate him again in person, because he and his volunteers did a super job!

I'd like to acknowledge the hard work of councillors Joe Mihevic and Joe Pantalone, who poured their heart and souls into helping organize the City's part of the event.

The Inukshuk we erected in Battery Park to commemorate the Pope's visit will welcome travellers to Toronto for generations to come.

And a special thank you goes to all our City staff and emergency services personnel, whose efforts before, during and after World Youth Day ensured that Toronto had on its best face and was on its best behaviour for the visit by Pope John Paul II.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank the thousands of citizens who volunteered to help make sure World Youth Day 2002 went off without a hitch.

Our citizens gave freely of their time. They opened their hearts and their homes to the pilgrims. If they saw them in a restaurant, they even bought them lunch.

They helped us show the world that in Toronto, peace and love are a way of life. Our city was showcased in more than 100 countries worldwide and Toronto looked beautiful.

The people of Toronto did us proud the world over.

On behalf of Toronto City Council and the 2.5 million residents of our great city, congratulations and thank you.