Fading faith in God, disgust over sex abuse scandals and objections to the church's stance on gays, abortion and contraception will greet Pope Benedict XVI in Australia this week.

The pontiff will lead World Youth Day celebrations from July 15-20 in Sydney. The event has been held in different cities around the globe since 1986 in an attempt to rejuvenate the Catholic church.

International research has found that Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, coming in 17th out of 21 surveyed by Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation.

Most Australians not religious

Most Australians, nearly three out of four, say they are either not at all religious or that religion does not play a central role in their lives, the research showed.

Among Australians in their teens and twenties there has been "a strong drift away from Christianity," concluded a three-year study by Monash University, the Australian Catholic University and the Christian Research Association.

While that drift is mirrored in many western nations, the Pope also faces strong objections in Sydney, one of the gay capitals of the world, to his stand against homosexuality.

NoTo Pope Coalition

Gays and lesbians have joined atheists and some Christian groups in forming a NoTo Pope Coalition which will also protest against the pontiff's opposition to contraception and abortion.

The coalition plans to hand out condoms to young pilgrims to get across its message that opposing condom use condemns millions of people around the world to dying of AIDS.

Aware of protest plans, the state government introduced new laws designed to prevent people "annoying" Catholic pilgrims -- a move activists say is likely to backfire and provoke protesters.

As a taste of its response to the laws, the NoTo Pope Coalition staged an "annoying fashion parade" in Sydney's city centre last week to display T-shirts bearing slogans such as "Pope Go Homo".

Another T-shirt suggestion in a local newspaper read: "The Pope touched me Down Under" -- a pun on Catholic sex abuse scandals which dog the pontiff on his travels.

Pope apology

During a visit to the United States in April, Benedict apologised for the actions of child-abusing clergy and Australian victims of predator priests are urging him to do the same in Australia.

"The laws are likely to encourage a wave of civil disobedience, with lots of people wearing dissenting T-shirts, conducting marches and carrying banners and placards," the victim support group Broken Rites said on its website.

Even among Sydney residents without a particular objection to the Pope or the Catholic church, many complain about taxpayers' money being spent on World Youth Day celebrations and its impact on business, traffic and daily life.

The event is expected to attract up to 125,000 international visitors and will culminate in a papal mass before an estimated 500,000 people on Sunday, July 20.

There will be 300 road closures, sealing off about a quarter of the city centre, while areas of Sydney's famous Harbour foreshore will be fenced off and closed to locals unless they have registered for a "pilgrim pass."

‘Inconvenience will be forgotten’

But coordinating bishop Anthony Fisher predicted Sydneysiders would forget the inconvenience once the event was underway.

"When the streets are full of happy, singing, smiling, lovely young people sharing their faith and idealism, people are going to forget all this scary 'it's-changed-my-routine'," he said recently. "They're going to love it."

About a quarter of Australia's 21 million people describe themselves as Catholics, but just 7.5 percent of the overall population attends church regularly, Tourism Australia said in a World Youth Day factsheet.