World Youth festivities - Benedict puts stamp on Papacy

The four-day visit of Pope Benedict XVI to his native Germany for the Catholic Church’s World Youth celebrations - initiated by his predecessor Pope John Paul II and held every three years - has been an unqualified success.

Up to a million people gathered on the outskirts of Cologne for the Papal mass to mark the climax of the youth festivities yesterday. It is probably a sign of changing times that the visit received comparatively little publicity in the Irish media.

The youth gathering was compared abroad to a huge Catholic Woodstock, evoking memories of the gathering of the youth of the earlier generation for a rock concert in New York. The new Pontiff emphasised the need for the younger generation to turn away from both secularism and new age spirituality, which he depicted as a do-it-yourself religion.