Pope Benedict XVI praised the Australian government Thursday for its “courageous’ apology to the country’s indigenous Aborigines for past injustices, saying it offered hope to all the world’s disadvantaged peoples.

The remarks came in the pope’s first public appearance on a 10-day visit to Australia to lead the Roman Catholic church’s youth festival, which has drawn more than 200,000 pilgrims to Sydney from across the world.

Benedict said Australia’s original inhabitants were an essential part of the country’s cultural landscape, and cited their plight since the first British convict settlers arrived 220 years ago.

“Thanks to the Australian government’s courageous decision to acknowledge the injustices committed against the indigenous peoples in the past, concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation based on mutual respect,” Benedict said.

In February, new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized to Aborigines as one of his first official acts after being elected to power. He has made closing a gap between indigenous people and other Australians a priority of his government.

Aborigines are an often-marginalized minority of about 450,000 in a population of 21 million. They are the country’s poorest group, with the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, incarceration and alcohol abuse, and a life expectancy 17 years shorter than other Australians.

The 81-year-old pontiff emerged Thursday from three days of seclusion _ a short holiday to help him recover from the more than 20-hour trip from Rome _ to join World Youth Day, a six-day event designed to inspire a new generation of Catholics.

He ended the respite Wednesday with a visit from some of Australia’s exotic animals. Wildlife officers from the city zoo brought a red-necked wallaby, a spiny echidna, a blue-tongued lizard and other beasts to the retreat after the pope expressed interest in seeing some Australian animals. Vactican-released video showed a smiling Benedict stroking a koala and scratching it behind the ear as it was held by a ranger.

Later Wednesday, the pope traveled by motorcade to the compound of St. Mary’s Cathedral, a 19th Century structure with towering twin spires in the heart of the city where he will stay until leaving Australia.

Throughout the city Wednesday, pilgrims reveled at massive barbecues thrown by the church and staffed by volunteers. For days they have strutted the streets like joyously good-natured mobs, waving the flags of their home countries, singing religious songs and shouting greetings to each other.

Later Thursday, Benedict will take a boat ride past Sydney’s landmark opera house to a former cargo wharf where he will deliver the first of several addresses to a huge crowd of pilgrims. He will then make a slow procession through downtown in the popemobile.

The contents of the pope’s address have not been revealed by the Vatican, though it is expected to be significant. During the flight from Rome to Sydney, Benedict told reporters he was concerned about global warming and that he would seek to heal some wounds caused by sexual abuse by clergy _ a scandal that has dogged the church in recent years.

Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, on Wednesday would not be pinned down on when the pope would speak about the sexual abuse scandal but suggested it may be Saturday.

Benedict’s comments about Aborigines were not the first time a pope has recognized indigenous peoples.

In 2001, John Paul II issued a formal apology to the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands for injustices perpetrated by Catholic missionaries. Rudd’s government also issued an apology to native Australians for racist assimilation policies that prevailed throughout most of the 20th century.