Pope heads to his homeland to woo Catholic youth

By Alexandra Hudson

COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) – Pope Benedict faces a tall
order as he embarks on the first foreign trip of his papacy on
Thursday.

He must charm excitable teenagers, bring restive Catholics
back to the fold and boost relations with other faiths.

Youngsters from almost 200 countries at the World Youth Day
festival in Cologne are sure to give the 78-year-old a hearty
reception, but curiousity is intense as to how much charisma he
can muster on the giant stage where his predecessor excelled.

Benedict is clearly not as comfortable with the limelight
as Pope John Paul — a former actor who relished a chance to
bring a crowd of millions to its feet and often did so at the
youth jamborees he launched in the 1980s.

While Benedict has overcome some stage fright since his
April election, leading cardinals have said he will not try to
replicate John Paul’s winning formula but find his own style.

World Youth Day offers him a chance to do just that. Many
of the participants are teenagers who know nothing of his past
as a conservative theologian and see only his grandfatherly
smile.

“We are so excited to see the new Pope,” said 17-year-old
Andra Radute from Romania.

“All I know about him is that he is German. We all loved
John Paul but now it will be good to get to know Benedict.”

After touching down at noon, the German-born Pontiff will
sail along the Rhine to Cologne’s soaring Gothic cathedral. A
drive through the city in the Popemobile will give him some
crowd exposure before a giant closing mass on Sunday.

Vatican watchers are looking for signals on how the Pope
intends to keep Catholics faithful to the Church and the
relations he intends to forge with Jews, Protestants and
Muslims, all of whom he will visit while in Germany.

They will also be listening for how Benedict handles hot
topics such as pre-marital sex or allowing the use of condoms
to fight AIDS. The Pope opposes both but the young people who
will cheer him here may not all agree.

PREDECESSOR LOOMS LARGE

Pope John Paul was 65 when he hosted his first World Youth
Day, whereas Benedict is 78. Following the pattern set by John
Paul, the Pontiff will hold meetings with young people and
celebrate an open-air mass before returning to Rome.

In the square outside Cologne Cathedral a huge poster shows
a smiling new Pope beckoning his young flock. However, round
the corner hangs an even larger image of John Paul — a mosaic
composed of thousands of passport photos.

Organizers said there would be no extra security for the
Pope after the fatal stabbing in France on Tuesday of Brother
Roger, founder of the Taize monastic community and one of the
20th century’s leading ecumenical figures.

“I don’t know how we could make security any tighter,” said
Father Heiner Koch, secretary general of World Youth Day.

Up to 4,000 police will guard the Pope and the thousands of
pilgrims streaming into Cologne for his four-day visit.

The armies of young Catholics had caused unforeseen
problems because they sometimes blocked whole streets they were
not expected to use, city traffic official Franz Wolf Ramien
said.

“They are more mobile, more fit and more merry than we
expected,” he told journalists.