” “The Palm Sunday celebration in Saint Peter’s Square was also attended by young people from Rome and other dioceses on the occasion of the diocesan feast of the XXI World Youth Day, about: "Lamp for my steps is Your word, light on my walk”. At the end of Mass and before the Angelus, the young of Cologne handed out the cross of the WYD to the young of Sidney, which in 2008 will be the venue of the XXIII World Youth Day. The celebration was also attended by cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, and cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney. In his sermon, the Pope spoke of the Cross and said: "There was a time and it has not completely passed yet when Christianity was refused just because of the Cross. The Cross speaks of sacrifice, they used to say, the Cross is the sign of the denial of life". But Palm Sunday tells us "it is just the Cross that is the true tree of life". "We cannot find life by taking possession of it went on the Pope -, but by giving it away". The Cross handed out to the Australian delegation has therefore a very special meaning: "From Cologne to Sydney a walk through the continents and cultures, a walk through a world that is torn apart and troubled by violence!". Symbolically, it is "the walk of He who, in the sign of the Cross, gives us peace and makes us the bearers of His peace". ” ” ” “
