The German Bishops’ Conference has published a booklet that documents the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cologne during WYD in August this year. The 129-page brochure brings together the various homilies and discourses of the Pope, and the welcoming speeches addressed to him during his first trip as pope to his homeland. “The advantage over most other publications consists in the fact that the Roman staff of the Holy Father reproduced the original, whereas in his addresses the Pope always ad-libbed and made small spontaneous additions” to his speeches, writes Cardinal Karl Lehmann, President of the German Bishops’ Conference, in his preface. The document opens with the arrival of the Pope at Köln-Bonn Airport. This is followed by his meetings with the young on the Rhine and in Cologne Cathedral, visit to the Synagogue, meetings with seminarians, with the representatives of the ecumenical world and with Islam, homilies and discourses during the vigil and final Mass at Marienfeld, meeting with the members of the German Bishops’ Conference and lastly the leave-taking of Benedict XVI at the airport. Also contained in the booklet are the speeches of German President Horst Köhler and of Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and the welcoming addresses and homilies of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Lehmann and Msgr. Franz-Josef Bode, head of the Commission for youth ministry.
