"The young participants in the 20th World Youth Day walk in the footsteps of the Magi, the Three Wise Kings, to meet Christ". This is how Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, began his greeting address to the pilgrims, who filled the stadium Rheine Energie Stadion in Cologne. Flows of young people were still on their journey along the 5 Km which separated the square of the cathedral from the stadium: public transport means were overcrowded, but nobody wanted to miss the opening ceremony in Cologne. Some of them walked on foot and sang along the way. "Today said Cardinal Meisner we meet for the first time and I have the impression we have always known each other: this is possible in our great universal Church. Let us give ourselves the most beautiful thing we have these days: our faith in Jesus Christ". "It appears that the Magi, the Three Wise Kings in the last two thousand years – continued Meisner have not lost anything of their appeal. A good 400,000 young christians from 193 countries registered as permanent participants in the WYD". The cross of the young people arrived at the stadium at the beginning of the celebration at which Horst Kohler, President of the German Federal Republic, was present.
