World Youth Day 2005
How it all started
"Welcome to Köln 2005": The invitation was issued in the summer of 2002 on TV. Millions of people watched 800,000 young people celebrating together with the Pope the closing mass of the XVII World Youth Day in Toronto. Finally, in the last minutes of this moving event John Paul II invited the young people of the world to the next international meeting in Germany:
" In the impressive Cathedral of Cologne the Three Magi are worshipped, the wise men from the East, who followed the star that guided them to Christ. Your pilgrimage to Cologne starts today. Christ is waiting there for you to celebrate the XX World Youth Day."
Since then preparations for the big celebration of faith have been running at full speed – in Cologne and troughout Germany.