B16 At WYD Cologne

When the new pope was announced, Catholic Answers staffers were crammed into the office’s conference room eagerly watching the television reports of the event (and nearly blew the roof off with cheers when Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was announced as Pope). In the hubbub that followed, I exclaimed that the upcoming World Youth Day was being held in Cologne, Germany, and a coworker commented that perhaps a positive spirituality is developing around World Youth Day.

Well, Pope Benedict XVI is now in Cologne, Germany, and accounts of his first return to his homeland following his election are upbeat and joyful:

"Standing on the bow of the boat so all could see his white cassock from afar, [the Pope] sailed past crowds of young people lining the bank, many standing thigh-high in the river.

"’To all of you I appeal: open wide your hearts to God. Let yourselves be surprised by Christ! Let him have the right of free speech these days,’ he told them in an address from the boat as his white hair blew in the wind.

"Benedict is on his first foreign trip since he was elected and he appeared to have a successful first day of charming the young people, nearly all of whom had known no other Pope but his charismatic predecessor John Paul.

"He told his fellow countrymen he was happy ‘to be in my beloved homeland, in Germany.’

"The young people chanted ‘Benedetto’ in a football chant cadence as his boat sailed down Germany’s longest river in a snake-curve pattern so more could see him."

GET THE STORY.

Reading this account, I could almost hear a Polish-accented voice also chanting "Benedetto!" and picture John Paul the Great’s mile-wide grin.

As an aside, I loved Pope Benedict’s call for Christ to be allowed the right of free speech. In this politically-correct age, it seems that Christ and his followers are the only ones of whom it is doubted that they should be allowed to speak freely.