Register Summary

Pope Benedict XVI met with 7,000 pilgrims in Paul VI Hall for his general audience on Aug. 24. Following the custom of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, he devoted the audience to an evaluation of his first apostolic trip outside of Italy to his native Germany for World Youth Day.

Dear brothers and sisters!

Just as our beloved John Paul II used to do after every apostolic pilgrimage, today I too would like to review with you my time in Cologne for World Youth Day. God in his Providence willed that my first pastoral trip outside of Italy would be to the country of my birth and that it would be to that great meeting of young people from around the world, World Youth Day, some 20 years after my predecessor, whom we shall never forget, instituted it with prophetic intuition.

Heartfelt Thanks

After my return, I thank God from the depths of my heart for the gift of this pilgrimage, of which I have fond memories. We all felt it was a gift from God. Of course, many people collaborated in it, but in the end the grace of this meeting was a gift from the Lord above.

At the same time, I am grateful to all those who, with commitment and love, prepared and organized every aspect of this meeting, starting with Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the bishops' conference, as well as the bishops of Germany, with whom I met at the very end of my visit.

I would also like to thank the civil authorities, organizations and volunteers who made their own contributions. I am also grateful to those people and communities throughout every part of the world that supported this meeting through their prayers, as well as to the sick, who offered their suffering for the spiritual success of this important meeting.

God Is With Us

My wonderful time with the young people who were taking part in World Youth Day began upon my arrival at the Cologne-Bonn airport, and became even more charged with emotion as I sailed on the Rhine from the Rodenkirchenbruecke pier to Cologne escorted by five other vessels representing the five continents.

My stop at the Poller Rheinwiesen wharf, where thousands upon thousands of young people were already awaiting me, was very moving. I had my first official meeting with them, which was appropriately called a “welcome festival” and which had as its motto the words of the Magi: “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2a)

Indeed, it was the Magi who were the “guides” for those young pilgrims to Christ. How significant it is that all this took place as we move toward the conclusion of the Year of the Eucharist that John Paul II desired so much! The theme of this meeting, “We Have Come to Worship Him,” invited everyone to follow the Magi and, together with them, to undertake a journey of inner conversion to the Emmanuel, the God-with-us, in order to know him, meet him, adore him, and after meeting and adoring him, to depart once again, bearing in spirit — in the depth of our being — his light and joy.

In Cologne, young people had numerous opportunities for deeper reflection on these spiritual themes, and felt as though the Holy Spirit was moving them to be witnesses of Christ, who has promised to remain truly present among us in the Eucharist until the end of the world.

I fondly recall the different moments that I had the joy of sharing with them, especially the vigil on Saturday evening and the concluding celebration on Sunday. Thanks to the providential links through radio and television, millions of other young people from all corners of the Earth joined us during these very thought-provoking demonstrations of faith.

However, I would like to recall here one special meeting—my meeting with the seminarians, those young men who have been called to follow Christ, who is our Teacher and Shepherd, in a more radical way.

It was my desire to have a time that was specifically devoted to them in order to highlight the vocational dimension that is characteristic of World Youth Day. During the past 20 years, many vocations to the priesthood and to consecrated religious life have blossomed during World Youth Day, which are special occasions when the Holy Spirit makes his call heard.

The ecumenical meeting with representatives of the other churches and church communities was well placed within the rich context of hope during my time in Cologne. Germany's role in the ecumenical dialogue is important, both because of its sad history of divisions and the significant part it played on the path of reconciliation.

I hope, moreover, that this dialogue, this mutual exchange of gifts and not just of words, will contribute towards the growth and maturity of the order and harmony of this “symphony,” which is catholic unity. From this perspective, World Youth Day is a solid ecumenical “laboratory.”

And how can I not relive with emotion my visit to the synagogue in Cologne, where the oldest Jewish community in Germany has its headquarters?

With our Jewish brothers and sisters, I remembered the Shoah and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. In addition, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, which inaugurated a new season of dialogue and spiritual solidarity between Jews and Christians and of esteem for other great religious traditions.

Among these, Islam, whose followers worship the one God and who go back to the patriarch Abraham, holds a special place. For this reason, I wanted to meet with representatives of some Muslim communities, to whom I expressed my hopes and concerns for this difficult moment in history that we are experiencing, with the desire that fanaticism and violence will be uprooted, and that we will be able to collaborate together in defending the dignity of the human person and in protecting his fundamental rights at all times.

An Explosion of Love

Dear brothers and sisters, from the heart of “old” Europe, which in the past century, unfortunately, has lived through horrendous conflicts and inhumane regimes, these young people launched in a new way and to men and women of our time the message of hope that does not disappoint us because it is founded on the Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for our salvation.

In Cologne, these young people met and worshipped Emmanuel, God-with-us, in the mystery of the Eucharist and came to a better understanding that the Church is that great family through which God creates a space of communion and unity among all continents, cultures and races, a “great group of pilgrims,” so to speak, guided by Christ, the radiant star who sheds his light on history.

Jesus becomes our travel companion in the Eucharist, and, in the Eucharist — as I said in the homily at the closing celebration, borrowing a well-known image from the realm of physics — brings about a “nuclear fission” in the most hidden depths of a person's being. Only this deep explosion of goodness that overcomes evil can give life to the other transformations that are needed to change the world. Let us pray, therefore, that the young people will carry forth with them from Cologne the light of Christ, who is Truth and Love, and spread it everywhere.

In this way, we will be able to witness a springtime of hope in Germany, in Europe and throughout the whole world.

(Register translation)