EUROPE/GERMANY - World Youth Day organisers offer joyful welcome to the new Pope : “we know we can rely on him to guide the Church towards God with great responsibility.”

Cologne (Fides Service) - In his message at the end of Mass with the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel this morning, Benedict XVI recalled that his pontificate starts in the Year of the Eucharist and he said “the Eucharist will be at the centre of World Youth Day in Cologne” and he addressed a special greeting to young people: “To them, the privileged interlocutors of John Paul II, I send an affectionate embrace in the hope, God willing, of meeting them at Cologne on the occasion of the next World Youth Day. With you, dear young people, I will continue to maintain a dialogue, listening to your expectations in an attempt to help you meet ever more profoundly the living, ever young, Christ.”.
On the occasion of the election of the new Pope secretary general of the 20th WYD Mgr. Heiner Koch said : “With deep gratitude and joy we welcome the election of the new Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI . The choice of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger turns our Church in the right direction. We can be sure the Holy Father will continue the work of his predecessor and we know we can rely on him to guide the Church towards God with great responsibility.”
With regard to the new Pope and his participation at World Youth Day in the coming month of August, the secretary general said: “We will let a few days pass and then we will come to Rome to speak with the Holy Father and the Pontifical Council for the Laity about final preparations for the 20th WYD. We look forward to seeing the Pope...We assure him our prayers. We are grateful for the news received from Rome and we are certain that the Pope will build a close relationship with young people” Mgr. Koch concluded. (MS) (Agenzia Fides, 20/04/2005 - 22 righe, 295 parole)