Catholics celebrate World Youth Day

Hundreds of thousands of young people from 184 countries jammed into the western German city of Cologne for the Roman Catholic Church’s 20th World Youth Day, singing and praying together as they awaited the arrival today of Pope Benedict XVI.

About 325,000 flag-waving and hymn-singing pilgrims had arrived by yesterday, organisers said, with up to a million expected by the time Benedict celebrates a closing Mass on Sunday.

They filed through Cologne’s giant cathedral and overflowed into streets and squares, many of them waving the flags of their countries and singing in Spanish, French, German, English, Polish and Romanian as they celebrated their faith together.

Most have known only one pope – the charismatic John Paul II, who died on April 2 after serving 27 years – and were curious to see how his successor, a former theology professor and Vatican doctrine official elected on April 19, would connect with the faithful.

Many made their plans to come while John Paul was still alive and had hoped to see him.

Big portraits of both John Paul II and Benedict were hung on buildings overlooking the square in front of the city’s massive cathedral where the new pope will address the crowd today.

Several hundred Poles waving their red-and-white flags gathered under the John Paul portrait to sing his favourite song, The Barge. Six French young people began chanting: “John Paul II, we love you,” in English, and the chant was taken up by dozens of others near the portrait.

For some, John Paul, who founded World Youth Day as a way to evangelise young people, was still clearly the favourite, especially among those who were at his last World Youth Day appearance two years ago in Toronto.

Susan Egan, 27, from Clara, Ireland, paused when asked about the new Pope. “It’s going to be very different, not having Pope John Paul here,” she said. “It gets to you. To me John Paul will always be my Pope.”

Marcelius Katanga from Rundu, Namibia, said: “We took up the invitation by John Paul to be with our fellow young people.”

“We believe that our new Pope can be like John Paul,” said Katanga, 26.

Herman Josef Johanns, head of the group that organised the biennial event, said nearly 325,000 pilgrims had arrived in the region since festivities began on Tuesday. Approximately 450,000 have registered to attend and nearly one million are expected for Benedict’s open-air Mass on Sunday.

One of tonight’s highlights is expected to be the Pope’s trip through the city on the Rhine River aboard a cruise ship that will dock near the cathedral. Benedict is also scheduled to visit the city’s oldest synagogue and will meet the leaders of Germany’s Muslim minority.