Half a million young people will greet Pope Benedict XVI when he arrives in Cologne today to celebrate World Youth Day, his inaugural foreign trip and his first trip as Pope to his homeland.
Some 30 pilgrims from Galway will be among a group of young people to meet the German pontiff and take a boat trip with him down the Rhine to greet visitors from nearly 200 countries.
Pope Benedict has asked for prayers on his "apostolic pilgrimage", originally planned for the late Pope John Paul II.
The pilgrims in Cologne and a world audience will be watching closely for signals of any movement on Catholic teaching and how Pope Benedict will reach out to other faiths during meetings with Jewish, Protestant and Muslim leaders.
Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor and a leader of the 2,000-strong Irish delegation, said he hoped Pope Benedict would touch young pilgrims' hearts.
"Cardinal Ratzinger was very dedicated to his job in an intellectual way. He now has new reasons to be otherwise and I am sure he has the intellect and the heart to embrace that," said Bishop McKeown.
Church critics were already out in force yesterday in Cologne, with one saying the lack of dialogue at World Youth Day made the event more like the "Communist Youth World Games".
"World Youth Day has to be measured by its openness to dialogue. This would be a good opportunity to discuss the vital questions of our time like HIV/Aids and the use of condoms. Sadly there will be no such discussion," said Tobias Raschke, spokesman for We Are The Church, a reformist organisation represented in 20 countries.
Cardinal Karl Lehmann, head of the German Bishops' Conference, caused excitement and confusion by apparently suggesting in an interview that, to remain relevant to young people, the church urgently needed to reform its teaching on morality and sexual ethics.
"Certainly we have to approach things in a new way, because the church is in danger in this area of no longer being listened to," he said in a radio interview. But his spokeswoman said the cardinal was suggesting instead that the "reasoning for the teachings be made more plausible".
This morning the Irish delegation will make a pilgrimage to Cologne cathedral and visit the Sarcophagus of the Magi, believed to be the last resting place of the Three Wise Men.