The 19th World Youth Day (WYD) will be held in Cologne, Germany, in August 2005. The news was made public by the German bishops in an official communiqué released in recent day, six months before the 17th WYD that will be held in Toronto from 18 to 28 July. The search for a “suitable period from a chronological point of view has now led the Pope to decide that the 19th World Youth Day will be held in August 2005”, write the German bishops in their press release, explaining that an “important reason for the postponement by one year” of an event hitherto scheduled for 2004, “is the having reflected on the unsuitability of placing the world meeting of Catholic youth in close chronological proximity to the Olympic games, which will also attract youth from all over the world”. Satisfaction has been expressed by leading exponents of the German episcopate for the Holy Father’s decision. Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne and Bishop Franz-Joseph Bode, president of the Conference’s youth Commission, had conducted talks with the Vatican authorities on the matter last October. The autumn of 2002 is the date fixed for the launch of the preliminary phase and for the preparation of the WYD in Cologne; main responsibility for the technical organization of the event will be shouldered by the Youth Commission of the Bishops’ Conference, the arciepiscopal Curia in Cologne and the surrounding episcopates.
