World Youth Day Diary Day 5 - Thursday August 18th
Sep 2 2005
By Stephen McKenna
We woke up this morning with our usual early wake up call and continental breakfast. Every morning seems to present the same problems in getting everyone out of bed! I think even the fire alarm would not have woken half of our group!
So anyway, we stumble out into the street on Thursday morning and get the bus to the Bayer Leverkusen football stadium for our second dose of catechesis.
After yesterday's speaker, we knew that today's Bishop would have a hard act to follow and unfortunately we were right. The Archbishop of Halifax, Canada gave a poorly worded speech that did not connect with the audience and his voice was not nearly as easy to listen to. There was nothing personal about his approach to catechesis and our group started to drift off and explore the rest of the stadium.
Before mass at midday, the video screens blinked off and they began to show a live TV broadcast of the Pope arriving at the airport. There were loud cheers throughout the stadium and people started chanting 'Benedictus! Benedictus!' this was when excitement in the whole of Cologne started to build as the Pope made his way around the city and to the Cathedral.
After mass there was plenty of opportunity for one on one confession with the many priests that had travelled out to Cologne with young people from their parishes all over the world. The priests lined up at the side of the pitch in front of the pilgrims in the stadium seats and those who wanted to, went down for confession. I felt that this was a great opportunity for me to go to confession in a completely different environment than I am used to and jumped at the chance.
The band that played today were great and we ended up meeting the main singer and guitarist after the mass and spent a long time talking to him. He was such a fun, chatty and charismatic character and he left a good impression on our group.
After lunch our faithful bus driver came back to pick us up and we drove to the banks of the Rhein as we heard that the Pope would be travelling down the river in an entourage of boats.
Luckily our driver managed to find a place to park the bus on a road next to the river so we all got out and basked in the warm sunshine. After caking ourselves in sunscreen, and posing for photos with the many fellow pilgrims who lined the river's edge, we saw a few boats coming down the Rhein and excitedly found a good spot to take photos. I joined several members of our group on the river bank, which was down a steep rocky slope from the path we had set up camp on.
An example of one of the songs we were singing on the river: 'He'll be coming in his Pope boat when he comes! He'll be coming in his Pope boat when he comes, he'll be coming in his Pope boat, coming in his Pope boat, coming in his Pope boat when he comes!
Our patience finally paid off and we were treated to the best view of the Pope! As his huge boat made its way gracefully down the Rhein, we were amazed to see it turn right in front of us and we were face to face with Pope Benedict as he waved down at us from the top deck of the boat!
An animated and jubilant group now re-gathered on the river's edge and compared photos that we had all taken. Everyone agreed that we were so lucky to have chosen such a good spot on the river and we said a big thanks to our driver!
Leaving our golden spot on the river we split up into two groups; one group decided that they wanted another fix of the Pope and made their way to the now very busy Cathedral. I, on the other hand, decided that all the excitement was too much and the prospect of walking to the busy Cathedral then back to the hotel was just too much. So I went with the majority of our group back to our hotel on foot as the trains were far too busy.
An hour's sleep and a warm shower later and I was feeling brand new again. I got bad news as I went down to the lobby though; one of the group leaders told us that a member of the group that had walked to the Cathedral was caught up in a crush on the steps and fell and damaged the tendons in her leg. She had to make a swift trip to the hospital by ambulance and was given treatment. The whole group were all very upset by the news and were glad when she finally arrived back at the hotel later that night.
We all had a quiet drink in the hotel lobby after night prayers in the seminar room and got some sleep after a tiring day.
We woke up this morning with our usual early wake up call and continental breakfast. Every morning seems to present the same problems in getting everyone out of bed! I think even the fire alarm would not have woken half of our group!
So anyway, we stumble out into the street on Thursday morning and get the bus to the Bayer Leverkusen football stadium for our second dose of catechesis.
After yesterday's speaker, we knew that today's Bishop would have a hard act to follow and unfortunately we were right. The Archbishop of Halifax, Canada gave a poorly worded speech that did not connect with the audience and his voice was not nearly as easy to listen to. There was nothing personal about his approach to catechesis and our group started to drift off and explore the rest of the stadium.
Before mass at midday, the video screens blinked off and they began to show a live TV broadcast of the Pope arriving at the airport. There were loud cheers throughout the stadium and people started chanting 'Benedictus! Benedictus!' this was when excitement in the whole of Cologne started to build as the Pope made his way around the city and to the Cathedral.
After mass there was plenty of opportunity for one on one confession with the many priests that had travelled out to Cologne with young people from their parishes all over the world. The priests lined up at the side of the pitch in front of the pilgrims in the stadium seats and those who wanted to, went down for confession. I felt that this was a great opportunity for me to go to confession in a completely different environment than I am used to and jumped at the chance.
The band that played today were great and we ended up meeting the main singer and guitarist after the mass and spent a long time talking to him. He was such a fun, chatty and charismatic character and he left a good impression on our group.
After lunch our faithful bus driver came back to pick us up and we drove to the banks of the Rhein as we heard that the Pope would be travelling down the river in an entourage of boats.
Luckily our driver managed to find a place to park the bus on a road next to the river so we all got out and basked in the warm sunshine. After caking ourselves in sunscreen, and posing for photos with the many fellow pilgrims who lined the river's edge, we saw a few boats coming down the Rhein and excitedly found a good spot to take photos. I joined several members of our group on the river bank, which was down a steep rocky slope from the path we had set up camp on.
An example of one of the songs we were singing on the river: 'He'll be coming in his Pope boat when he comes! He'll be coming in his Pope boat when he comes, he'll be coming in his Pope boat, coming in his Pope boat, coming in his Pope boat when he comes!
Our patience finally paid off and we were treated to the best view of the Pope! As his huge boat made its way gracefully down the Rhein, we were amazed to see it turn right in front of us and we were face to face with Pope Benedict as he waved down at us from the top deck of the boat!
An animated and jubilant group now re-gathered on the river's edge and compared photos that we had all taken. Everyone agreed that we were so lucky to have chosen such a good spot on the river and we said a big thanks to our driver!
Leaving our golden spot on the river we split up into two groups; one group decided that they wanted another fix of the Pope and made their way to the now very busy Cathedral. I, on the other hand, decided that all the excitement was too much and the prospect of walking to the busy Cathedral then back to the hotel was just too much. So I went with the majority of our group back to our hotel on foot as the trains were far too busy.
An hour's sleep and a warm shower later and I was feeling brand new again. I got bad news as I went down to the lobby though; one of the group leaders told us that a member of the group that had walked to the Cathedral was caught up in a crush on the steps and fell and damaged the tendons in her leg. She had to make a swift trip to the hospital by ambulance and was given treatment. The whole group were all very upset by the news and were glad when she finally arrived back at the hotel later that night.
We all had a quiet drink in the hotel lobby after night prayers in the seminar room and got some sleep after a tiring day.
