There are some familiar lines today from the Catholic Church about the extent of taxpayer compensation, and security arrangements, for the World Youth Day being inflicted on Sydney in July.

The Church claims to have known nothing about either the amount of taxpayers’ money being spent on staging the event or the draconian APEC-like laws being instituted by the NSW Government for it.

Perhaps that’s what life is like as a major world religion — Governments waste tens of millions of dollars helping you put on festivals, and impose outrageous restrictions on civil liberties to help you control them, without even being asked.

But more likely, it’s a continuation of the Church’s traditional approach to handling anything uncomfortable – claim to know nothing.

The focus of World Youth Day coverage so far has been on the stoush between the Church and the AJC over Randwick Racecourse. The AJC, which oversees a large industry based on animal cruelty and gambling, is big enough and ugly enough to look after itself, and it managed to do that quite nicely. But the extension of police powers for the event means the rest of Sydney now gets to share the burden of hosting this thing – as well as paying for the privilege.

One of the organisers is saying that the event will not be like APEC. That is certainly correct – the only “world leader” attending will be prominent Islamophobe Joseph Ratzinger (stagename Pope Benedict).

Instead, according to one organiser, Sydney will “be full of happy, singing, laughing, beautiful young people”. Given the Church’s traditional treatment of young people, the security restrictions might be better aimed at keeping predatory priests in check. There is no other justification for the NSW Government giving police extra powers. But given that restrictions on civil liberties is this incompetent Government’s default response to virtually anything out of the ordinary, it’s hardly surprising.

And while the Church may profess not to know the financial details of the event, it will undoubtedly be hoping that each and every one of those happy, singing, laughing, beautiful young people will buy some official World Youth Day apparel. The faithful can purchase exorbitantly-priced shirts and jackets for the event, as well as hats, bags, paraphernalia to help you pray, and DVDs from the World Youth Day website. Given the likely age of attendees, World Youth Day condoms would probably be a good idea too, but we know the Church’s stance on contraception.

Perhaps the Church would like to tell its hosts – the people of Sydney – just how much money it will be making from the event. Between merchandising, corporate sponsorship, ticketing and tour packages and taxpayer assistance, the Catholic Church possibly stands to make a significant, and entirely tax-free, profit.

But that sort of transparency isn’t really the Catholic way.