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Pope heads to his homeland to woo Catholic youth

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 18:08 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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