"The wish for a rewarding life has brought you to Cologne, where we go to learn from to the first seekers of God, who are the Magi, the Three Wise Kings". In his homily during the WYD opening Mass in the Cologne stadium, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of the German city, urged young people to walk in the footsteps of the Magi and said: "In these days, you do not meet as foreigners and strangers but as relatives and journey companions: relatives because we have the same origin which comes from God, and journey companions for the wish to have a meaningful and rewarding life, that is a life with God, has led you on the same road". "It is this inner appeal added Meisner that comes from God which, two thousand years ago, urged the Magi, the Three Wise Kings, to set out towards Christ and which today brought you to Cologne to seek and find Christ. He can guarantee you a great future and a full life. There is no alternative to Christ".
