Mgr. Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French Bishops Conference, reminded the young French and Canadians of the importance of gathering to celebrate the Eucharist, in today’s catechesis at Cologne’s Palladium. Yesterday and today, this building, normally used to hold concerts and shows, hosted about 50,000 French-speaking young people to listen to the words of their bishops and confess with the priests available at the entrance. "Marche a ma suite", Walk by my Side, is written on the T-shirts of these boys and girls, who from the stage aroused the young public’s enthusiasm with their songs and music. Then, a girl read a "pilgrim’s prayer", which has a moving story behind it: Isabelle, the young author, had written it a few weeks ago with her husband to get ready for the Cologne event. Three days before leaving, her husband brutally died. Speaking with a priest, Isabelle said: "I hope my husband will continue his pilgrimage to heaven and the Lord will give me the strength to accept this". Mgr. Ricard’s catechesis, all focussing on the Eucharist, was an invitation to the young to rediscover its meaning. "A challenge in the Western countries he said where people are going through a sort of estrangement from the Eucharist. Many people do not go to Mass, if everyone prayed for himself on Sundays there wouldn’t be in the world the signs of the calling of the Lord, who now needs to gather His people through the Eucharist". After the catechesis, the young asked a few questions to the archbishop, then took Holy Communion.
