World Youth Day 2005

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XX World Youth Day 2005
Image:World youth day logo 2005.jpg We have come to worship Him (Matthew 2:2)
Location	Cologne, Germany
Date	August 16–21 2005

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The 20th World Youth Day 2005 was a Catholic youth festival that started on August 16 and continued until August 21, 2005 in Cologne, Germany. It was the first World Youth Day and foreign trip of Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the festival on August 18. This meeting was decided by the previous pope, John Paul II, during the Toronto World Youth Day of 2002. The theme was "We have come to worship Him" (from Matthew 2:2).

About 400,000 young people from 200 countries attended during the week, and more than 1,000,000 came for the weekend. They were joined by about 600 bishops and cardinals, as well as by 6,600 reporters.

The second day of the event (August 17) was for some dominated by news of the murder of Frère Roger in Taizé, France.

1 The Pope's Apostolic Journey to Germany
2 Attending groups
3 See also
4 External links

The Pope's Apostolic Journey to Germany

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Originally, Pope John Paul II was to attend the World Youth Day in Cologne. After he died earlier in 2005, it was instead his successor Pope Benedict XVI's first apostolic journey. Most pilgrims to the World Youth Day made their plans to come while John Paul II was still pope, and had hoped to see him. Before Pope Benedict XVI led the central mass, he met with several politicians and others.

August 18

12:00 The pope arrived at Köln-Bonn Airport
16:45–18:00 Journey on the Rhine, the pope spoke in Köln-Poll
18:15 The pope visited Cologne Cathedral

August 19

10:30 The pope met with German President Horst Köhler at Villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn
12:00 The pope visited Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne. The synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 and was rebuilt in the 1950s.

August 20

10.00 The pope met with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, president of the Federal Diet Wolfgang Thierse, Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel and the minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia Jürgen Rüttgers

The Pope issued a plenary indulgence for those attending World Youth Day, with a partial indulgence available to all who pray fervently, with a contrite heart, that Christian youth

be strengthened in the profession of the Faith;
be confirmed in love and reverence toward their parents; and
form a firm resolution to follow "the holy norms of the Gospel and Mother Church" in living out their present or future family life, or whatever vocation they are called to by God.

August 21

An estimated 1,000,000 people, after camping outdoors all night, joined Pope Benedict XVI for the concluding Mass in the vast Marienfeld near the village of Kerpen. Participants too far away to see the pope in the vast field watched the services on more than 15 jumbo-sized television screens. [1]

Attending groups

Numerous interest groups attended World Youth Day: schools, universities, and new movements were all well represented. One such group attending for the first time was Juventutem, a group of young traditional Catholics interested in pre-Vatican II liturgy, who had the Mass offered for them by Cardinals Alfons Maria Stickler and Edouard Gagnon according to the Tridentine missal.