Posted on 08/21/2005 8:11:29 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
COLOGNE, Germany -- They slept in a dew-soaked field, packed head-to-toe, and awoke Sunday under heavy gray skies to hear Pope Benedict XVI urge his youthful followers to live a life of faith and to work to spread it.
An estimated 1 million pilgrims from every corner of the planet attended Benedict's open-air Mass, culminating a weeklong World Youth Day and the new pontiff's international debut.
Freedom granted by God "is not simply about enjoying life in total autonomy, but rather about living by the measure of truth and goodness, so that we ourselves can become true and good," he told the crowd, offering the central moral prescription of his four-day appearance here. "This gesture is necessary even if initially our yearning for freedom makes us inclined to resist it."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I thought religion was dead in europe :-)
And I was there. As a protestant. But it was a cool event. When was the last time you have prayed and worshipped the Lord together with 1 MILLION from all countries of the world ?? ;-)
Ok, transport afterwards was horrible, and there weren´t enough water stations during and after the mass, but since it wasn´t hot or even sunny, that wasn´t such a big problem. I´m glad that no terrorist attack took place, since there was no security check for the area. They wanted to, but it would have taken too much time, so they gave it up. Same with the railway company with the ticket check after the mass...
VENIMUS ADORARE EUM - IMMANUEL, God is with us.
You were at Marienfeld? Very cool indeed. The media in the US doesn't seem to be giving the event much play. I would think 1 million people anywhere would be hard to ignore... Thank God for EWTN (a Catholic cable station).
I already noticed that the US media has almost completely ignored that big event. I mean, such a strong sign for Christianity can´t be overheard, can it?
The World Youth Day was a wonderful idea. So many young people (< 30 yrs) from all over the world celebrating their faith. 25,000 came from the US, half a million people were foreigners, the other 500,000 were Germans.
We really like Benedict XVI. He has come to his home country for his first trip to the foreign, and he has been welcomed cordially. Our President, a protestant too, said wise words: "Only those, who are orientated, can give orientation to others. I hope, that you as orientated will do so and help others because and with your faith!"
The Pope should and can help to boost Christianity in Germany and Europe. We need that. And that´s one reason why I drove to the Marienfeld.
Most of the mass was hold in German, but foreigners could hear translations in English, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Afrikaans on the WYD Radio programmes.
The atmosphere was to friendly, peaceful and everybody felt to be one small part of the main. It was ca. 70° F, and the sky was fully covered with clouds, we never saw blue sky or sunshine. Fortunately, it didn´t rain, although it was predicted (hehe, thanks, St. Peter!!).
Still, singing "Now thank we all our Lord" or the WYD song "Venimus adorare eum" with 1 million people is simply great. Little shadow on that day: the Pope clearly explained in his preach what divides Catholics and Protestants with regard to the Eucharisty (sp?) and did harm to my hopes for celebrating one day the last supper with Catholics and Protestants as an common expression of our Christian faith.
But the spirit of this day shall live in our hearts and be spread around the world.
And I watched it on Polish TV - it was a great thing, really. Let's hope Europe will awaken.
Sad, that the arguement between ID promoters and scientists about Darwin gets more attention than such an event. I mean, it´s not a problem for the Catholic Church which also says that man has developed more or less by chance from apes, but that doesn´t say that our Lord hasn´t created life.
Thanks Michael for the eyewitness report! NYer, Salvation, for your ping lists.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Michael, did you take pictures you can post?
There sure do seem to be a lot of people coming out to see a Pope who is "too" Catholic!
Thanks. It was a remarkable event, and the Pope's homilies both at the Saturday vigil and the Sunday Mass were excellent.
I cited news sources at 400,000 at the Mass. My godson and lots of friends are there...as well as EWTN here on cable, yet still they lie.
You haven't seen anything. You should see the lack of reporting on the March for Life in Washington every January... where I will be yet again...God willing.
Actually, I stood on the way near the huge screen in the middle block on the right side on my picture posted in post #10. :-)
Oh, and thanks to FR for improving my English, the best compliment I got was from an Australian pilgrim. She asked after having talked with her for a few minutes "and you´re from the US?"
No, I was optimistic that there was enough media presence.
How wonderful. I must say that the thought of a terrorist attack did not occur to me (silly, in retrospect), but now that I do think of it, can you imagine the response if the young people of so many countries were harmed at such an event. While they surely hate Christians, their leaders do not wish to be martyred so very much, which I think would most certainly have occurred, and promptly.
I too didn´t believe it was probable that terrorists attacked the event, though I considered that. A fellow pilgrim raised that concern in the train, but I played it down. It was the time to put Jesus Christ in the center of our thoughts and not the worst creatures.
I expected security checks, but the police didn´t want to let so many pilgrims wait for hours, so everybody passed the gates unchecked. But if something had happened, many more people would have died because of a mass panic. Even without terrorism it was difficult for our disabled fellow pilgrims to get out of the Marienfeld.
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