Alejandra Benitez-Aldecoa, left, and Jeanette Gonzales, both 17 and from Holy Family Catholic Church, get some last-minute instructions at a logistical meeting for the 2008 World Youth Day trip to Sydney, Australia. Young Catholics and some parents leave Saturday for the 10-day trip. Pope Benedict XVI will mark his first Australian visit during the event.

Jill Torrance / arizona daily star

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Two years ago, when she was 15, Tucsonan Jeanette Gonzales began preparing to see Pope Benedict XVI.

She spent many weekends working carwashes, acting as a parking attendant and peddling baked goods. Sometimes she got up at 4 a.m. But she managed to raise nearly $3,000 and secured herself a spot at the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.

She leaves Saturday.

"I want to go and I'm excited, but something is also holding me back a little. I've never been away from my family for that long," said Gonzales, a Pueblo High School student who attends Holy Family Catholic Church. "But if I don't go, I know I'll always regret it."

Gonzales is among at least 59 youths from six local diocese churches who will be in Sydney next week for the event. All have been fundraising for months to pay their way.

Thirty youths from SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Midtown left Tuesday morning. A dozen members of Midtown's St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church youth group are expected to leave Thursday. The youths range in age from about 16 to their early 20s.

Like Gonzales, 17-year-old Alejandra Benitez-Aldecoa is nervous. The Tucson High School student and Holy Family parishioner thinks 10 days is a long time to be gone. And it's Australian winter — she hopes she has enough warm clothes. But she definitely wants to go.

"It's a chance to see the pope and see the other side of the world. I want to experience my religion to the fullest," she said. "Seeing the pope is special because he is the one who is trying to help lead us into heaven."

The Holy Family youths are among a group of 17 young people who will be traveling together from four local Catholic churches: Santa Cruz and St. John the Evangelist, both on Tucson's South Side, and St. Augustine Cathedral and Holy Family, in the Downtown area.

They'll arrive in Sydney at 6 a.m. Monday. The opening Mass will be Tuesday morning, although Monday events are scheduled.

Pima Community College engineering student Henry Castro, 19, says it's a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. Castro has friends who saw the pope and were moved to tears.

The Tucson youths are looking forward to the event's diversity. U.S. Catholics make up less than 6 percent of Roman Catholics worldwide.

"I don't get to see different perspectives of Catholic faith, being in the U.S.," said Mabel Rivera, 23, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist who is studying to be a teacher at Pima Community College. "It will be amazing to see how the same faith unites people all over the world and to meet people who believe in the same core thing that I do."

Not everyone is a fan. The Sydney Morning Herald reported last month that activists calling themselves NoToPope Coalition, including atheists and gay-rights groups, will protest.

"The protests don't surprise me," Rivera said. "I'm open and accept that people have different beliefs. It doesn't make me want to protest. But everyone does things their own way."

Begun by Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day is an invitation from the pope to the youth of the world to celebrate their faith around a particular theme. This year's is from Acts 1:8: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses."

The Rev. Alonzo M. Garcia of Holy Family, who is a chaperon, said he'll try to make sure the local youths get as close to the pope as possible.

"None of these kids have seen the pope; most have never left Tucson before. They are hometown kids," Garcia said. "The idea is to expand their appreciation for the church and the world around them. The world is a lot larger than Tucson."