” “He wanted to meet the seminarians of Cologne before going to Marienfeld with the world’s youth tonight. And he did it to revive, as John Paul II said, "the vocational dimension, which is never missing in the World Youth Days". It corroborates the truth: Benedict XVI does not hesitate to grasp and propose the essential thing, he is not afraid to be demanding in asking the young to get ready for the mission, after the adoration. He says one cannot exist without the other. The adoration thus becomes the opposite of inactivity and the mission the opposite of pain. Both can become a generous, dramatic choice.
” “Benedict XVI has good grounds for believing that many young people are already looking at it that way. Someone told him of the Cathedral of Cologne jam-packed with boys and girls for the Midnight Mass, of thousands and thousands of young people in the places of the catecheses and thousands more who have followed them in front of the large screens, of the flows of cheerful and often praying people along the streets of the city. He also knows that some have got lost or have been distracted by the inevitable commotion. And, finally, he knows that in Marienfeld tonight he, the Pope, will be surrounded by a merry, thinking and praying humanity.
” “What is happening in Cologne cannot but give even more reasons for his request of the adoration and the mission. With the sweetness and strength of a father who has his children’s happiness at heart.
” “Just like yesterday to the seminarians, today he will reveal that secret to the young.
