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I am going to Cologne because, like all young people, I feel the invitation of John Paul II is strong even today. I think he only wanted my good and I trust him. And, like me, all the boys and girls of the world are invited. It is interesting to note that ever-younger youth are responding to this invitation and that the interest in WYD is growing, in my country too. There will be some 3500 of us from the Czech Republic. Perhaps it does not seem many, but for an atheist nation with a low birth rate the number is far from small. We are looking forward with joy to meeting the new pope, Benedict XVI. This will be our first opportunity to get to know him and, once we have got to know him, to love him. The presence of the bishops who will accompany us is also a source of great hope. They will help us to discover and love the Church. A personal meeting with all of them will be possible; we will be able to speak with them, listen to them and also share our days with them. So, thinking of the 20th WYD, I would like to say that each young Christian, and also each young person who is seeking his/her own faith, is like a little light in this world. Going to Cologne is like making these little lights travel towards a single goal, towards God, towards others, and enabling them to be together. I would so much like a new light to shine out. I would like to know the lights of other nations, of other parts of the world. I would like to get to know other youth who believe in or are seeking the same Christ as I, but perhaps in a different way, perhaps on different paths, in different contexts. I have a great yearning to know these paths, these contexts. Today the world thanks to the means of communication seems like a small village, but perhaps that is not so, because getting to know others through the media is not the same as getting to know them personally. And I hope to get to know various people, to share my days with them, to forge friendships, and to live in truth. This truth is at times very painful, because many young people will come from countries where civil war rages, where great violence or terrorist attacks are happening every day. We cannot close our eyes to them. Indeed, World Youth Days are a living witness for the rest of the world, a light that enables us to see the world more clearly: the youth of the various nations are and wish to be friends. Perhaps inside us there is a strength that we fail to recognize. John Paul II said we are the sentinels of the new millennium, that we are the hope of the world. Perhaps we can do a lot for the future of the world, even though at times it is difficult to understand and know how.
