GERMANY: More than 400,000 young Catholics gathered in Cologne yesterday for the opening of World Youth Day ahead of tomorrow's arrival of Pope Benedict XVI.
Thousands of young pilgrims from 193 nations have come to the city on the banks of the Rhine for the six-day biennial festival of prayer and music.
The first port of call for thousands of visitors wearing blue rucksacks was the stunning Cologne cathedral opposite the main train station, with its twin Gothic spires towering over the cityscape.
Organisers are expecting visitor numbers to swell to close to a million by the weekend. The largest delegation is from Italy, with 100,000. Other groups include 50,000 Spaniards, 20,000 Poles and 2,000 from Ireland.
"World Youth Day should show that belief has an important place in our society," said Cardinal Joachim Meisner at the opening mass.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of the German Bishops' Conference, said the event would show the Catholic Church as a "world church".
"We cannot allow ourselves to withdraw to a niche. We must deliver a comprehensive public testimonial," he said.
The festivities began yesterday evening with three Masses, in the neighbouring cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bonn.
World Youth Day has proved a logistical challenge, and Cologne officials admitted yesterday with Rhineland good humour that "a certain level of chaos will be unavoidable".
Some 100,000 visitors will stay with host families while others have found a bed in hotels, youth hostels and camp-sites.
Security will be tight for the arrival tomorrow of Pope Benedict to the Rhineland, an area he knows well having lived here in the 1960s.
More than 8,000 police and private security guards will be on duty during his visit, and Nato aircraft will patrol the skies.
Some 6,000 journalists will follow the 78-year-old German pontiff on his first visit home since assuming the papacy.
The most important events of his four-day programme include a visit to a Cologne synagogue, meetings with Evangelical and Muslim leaders, and the closing Mass on Sunday.
The visit is already proving a media sensation. A German teen magazine Bravo, which is notorious for publishing sex tips for teenagers, announced it was making Pope Benedict its pin-up this week.
"Bravo reports on stars, and for many young people in Germany Pope Benedict is a star," said Tom Junkersdorf, Bravo editor-in-chief. On the reverse side of the Pope Benedict poster is singer Snoop Dogg.