The Pope says that Madrid, the capital of Spain will host the next World Youth Day in 2011.

To the jubilation of some 5,000 Spanish pilgrims present at World Youth Day 2008 in Australia, Benedict XVI broke the news at the events' closing Mass in Sydney, saying: "Until then, let us continue to pray for one another and let us joyfully bear witness to Christ before the world."

Nearly half a million worshippers turned up for the final Mass of World Youth Day, a five-day festival of prayer, worship, celebration and teaching, described by some as “The Catholic Woodstock.” During his first visit to Australia, Pope Benedict XVI also made a public apology for sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, saying he was “deeply sorry” for the pain and suffering endured by victims. “These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation. Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice," he said in Saturday in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.

A WYD pilgrim was arrested for insulting one of a number of groups protesting the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality and contraceptions. Wearing t-shirts splashed with the slogan ‘Pope go Homo’, they handed out condoms to the thousands of Catholic pilgrims who flooded into Sydney for the five-day event

The choice of the Spanish capital for the next WYD is said by Church sources to be the Pope’s personal preference, as in contrast to a secular city such as Sydney, Spain has a deeply Roman Catholic tradition.

Seventy-five per cent of Spain’s 40 million citizens class themselves as Roman Catholics, but the country is strongly divided between fervent believers and progressive secularists anxious to distance Spain from its Catholic past, which they associate with the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

The Socialist Government of José Luis Zapatero has clashed frequently and vigourously with the Church since assuming power in 2004. In a bid to establish Spain as a modern nation, dubbed by some ‘the Mediterranean Sweden’, Zapatero has introduced a series of controversial measures that fly in the face of Roman Catholic doctrine, including gay marriages, quick divorce, and research into embryonic stem cells.

Thousands of lay Roman Catholics, backed by the Spanish episcopate, have taken to the streets in protest. A particular concern for Catholic parents has been the introduction in state schools of compulsory “Citizenship Classes” which they claim impart Socialist values. The Government argues the classes, which teach equal rights, are necessary to reflect Spain’s increasingly international and pluralistic society.

Relations between the Church and State reached a new low in March, when the Spanish bishops advised voters against voting for the Socialist party, which later won a second term in office. The Government are now seeking to revise historic ties between Church and State.

Next World Youth Day will mark the second time the international celebration for Catholic Youth has taken place in Spain. In 1989, World Youth Day took place in Santiago de Compostela, Northern Spain, which, according to tradition, is the burial place of St James the Apostle.