” “"We are sorry for the attack against the young people in the cloister at Volkenroda, but we are happy that, with the arrest of the three attackers, the police avoided the worst from happening". This is the official statement made by Peter Weidemann, the spokesperson of the diocese of Erfurt (that Volkenroda belongs to), where three young people, their faces masked and with an air-gun, attacked the tent which houses a WYD Info point. "It is obvious that, albeit carried out in a drunken state, the attack was motivated by hatred for foreigners, states the Weidemann note. Therefore it was not a haphazard choice: young people from all over the world had converged in that spot to meet their peers for a peaceful international gathering". This action, in Weidmann’s view, "will not hamper nor stop the WYD in Turingia and, more in general in Germany. Because only by being together with people from different countries can one really understand how foreigners are a blessing. This is being witnessed across Germany on the occasion of this event". And finally a wish: "We hope that this terrible experience will not be the memory that the young volunteers who were attacked will take home with them".
