World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne - Celebrating the unity and the diversity of our faith

By Ferran Tarradellas, special envoy

Cologne (22 August 2005).- For those who have had to spend the summer in Brussels, the celebration of the World Youth Day in Cologne had an almost irresistible attraction. The first actual World Youth Day was set in 1986 by the late Pope John Paul II, as an occasion to meet the young and encourage them to live their faith. It was then repeated in 1987, after which World Youth Days have been held, as rule, every two years at a new central location somewhere in the world. In the intervening years World Youth Day is also marked by celebrations on Palm Sundays in Rome and in dioceses across the world.

The WYD has been since an excellent opportunity to share moments of prayer with other Young people and to share with the Pope the real sense of Catholicism: one faith, one Lord, one God and Father, for all the nations. 2005 edition had many elements that made it unique. First of all, it was just two hours away from Brussels. In a sense, it was not us who went to WYD, but it was the WYD that came to us. Secondly it was the first foreign visit of Pope Benedict XVI, although it was precisely the opposite. Providence wanted that his first public appearance took place in a gathering organised for his predecessor precisely in his homeland Germany. It has to be considered a divine kindness for a Pope who is known to be quite shy that his first match was being played at his stadium.

During the week thousands of young from around the world had been arriving to Cologne. The week was to finish with a praying vigil with the Pope and a final Eucharist. Like every WYD, many question marks rose in the headlines of the newspapers just before the arrival of the Pope. Would Benedict XVI, a pope so different of the mediatic John Paul II, succeed in communicating with young people? Would young people at all attend a meeting with an old theology professor? Was Germany, a country in the middle of a Faith crisis, going to respond positively to such an event? To make things more discouraging, the weather forecasts announced cold, rain and humidity for the whole weekend. The organisers announced that before arriving to Marienfeld, “pilgrims” (so were we called) had to walk, depending on the parking place of their buses, between 7 and 15 km. For safety reasons, tents were not allowed in, so the plan was to sleep, in one of the coldest nights of a German August, either under the stars, or under the rain. Look it however you want – it did not look like fun.

I shared the lack of faith of many, and supposed that the encounter was going to be a reduced one if not simply intimate. However, you can’t go around the world as a Christian without faith. Already during the pilgrimage to the Marienfeld (7 kilometers, as expected) you could get an image of what the event was going to be like. Young people wearing all kind of flags (some of them quite unexpected, such as China or Egypt) were marching and singing. Others were praying the rosary. Among the young there were many priests, religious and nuns. Of every imaginable order.

One of the images that impressed me more vividly was a Dutch monk dressed with a kind of grey habit wearing on his back a huge speaker. The music, far from Gregorian, was techno. The lyrics however were a re-mastering of the announcement of the election of the Pope. “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; habemus Papam: Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Cardinalem Ratzinger” with this name chanted by a group of Dutch youngsters waving Dutch, and Ajax flags.

When we finally arrived to Marienfeld we were unprepared for what we saw. It looked like a huge refugee camp with a sleeping bag in any free square meter of land. It is useless to figure how many people were there. I trust more the statistics of an Italian man sleeping next to me who simply said: “c’è un sacco di gente”. (There is a whole lot of people!). However, more that the quantity the most impresive thing was the diversity. There were flags from every imaginable country which showed clearly the universal (Catholic) sharing of our faith. People chant with drums and guitars next to priests were praying their brevary; groups of nuns were trying to live their different vocations in the middle of general chaos. The spritualities were so many that I felt tempted to wonder if they were actually sharing the same faith.

And indeed they were. Liturgy in this sense was extremely important. During the three hour-long Mass the answers and the attitude were similar among all the present. The reverence towards the Eucarist was universal, both in the vigil, during which the Pope gave a blessing with the Holy Sacrament, and during the communion, the logistics of which were quite impressive, with thousands of priests and Eucharistic ministers, covered by yellow umbrellas.
And the Pope himself was another strong symbol of the Church unity. During his homily, the Pope asked us “Be close to me in prayer. I ask you to walk together in unity. Always be faithful to Christ and to the Church.” The Pope gave the crowd his Apostolic Blessing before bidding the young pilgrims farewell with personal salutations in French, in English, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, in the Tagalog language of the Philippines, in Swahili and in German.
Walking back to our bus (14 km. this time) I thanked the Lord this chance to share with so many brothers and sisters a moment of real Catholic prayer, in the rich diversity and the strong unity of the Church. May the lord preserve both of them. I was also thinking if I would be allowed in Sydney’s WYD 2008 because the pain in my bones after a long sleepless night on the humid floor proved that I am no more a young. Maybe a good plan for our brand new Young group in the Parish?

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