The Pope arrives in Cologne today for World Youth Day, an event of huge importance for the Catholic Church and the fledgling papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, writes Paddy Agnew.
As fate would have it, the first foreign trip of the new Pope, little more than 100 days after his election in April, takes him to his German homeland. He arrives in Cologne today for World Youth Day, a weeklong festival of Catholic youth often referred to as the "Catholic Woodstock". Hundreds of thousands of young people are attending, including over 1,500 from Ireland.
In an interview with Vatican Radio earlier this week, Pope Benedict said "providence wanted my first trip abroad to take me to Germany", adding "if almighty God decides to do something like that to you, then you can only be delighted".
A huge organisational and security operation is in place for a unique event which may attract up to 800,000 people for Sunday's final Mass. Sponsored by multinationals such as Audi, Bayer, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, DHL, Nestlé, Shell and Volkswagen, the week-long event will cost an estimated €100 million.
The German state picks up €12 million of the cost, the German church has contributed €27 million and the rest of the bill will be covered by sponsors, merchandising, a lottery and donations.
Beyond the razzmatazz of what has become a huge media event (more than 4,000 journalists have been accredited), this World Youth Day is hugely important for the Catholic Church and - above all - for the fledgling papacy of Pope Benedict.
Over the next few days, much attention will be paid to the atmosphere and turnout generated by the 78-year-old Pope with his "performance" inevitably being compared to that of his charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, a man whose easy relationship with young people once earned him the accolade of "great showman, the first funky pontiff" from U2 singer Bono.
World Youth Day, however, will be about more than mere comparative notes regarding Benedict and his illustrious predecessor.
The Pope's programme of meetings in Cologne will put the spotlight on the Catholic Church's relations with Protestantism, Judaism, Islam and internal dissent. His keynote speeches may indicate something of how he will deal with these issues in his pontificate.
It is also clear that Pope Benedict himself attaches huge importance to World Youth Day. On April 20th, the day after his election, he immediately confirmed that he would attend the gathering, making that statement one of the first hard news items of his pontificate.
Even if Pope Benedict is a much more retiring, less telegenic figure than John Paul, he is not without media savvy. As someone who has already indicated that the focus of his pontificate will be on the message rather than on the personality of the pontiff, he knows only too well that Cologne provides a rare opportunity to get that message across to millions worldwide. In effect, World Youth Day offers him the chance to make a sort of "State of the Church" address.
Given that this year's event takes place in Germany, birthplace of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, the matter of ecumenical relations will clearly loom large.
In his Vatican Radio interview, the Pope said his meeting with Protestant church leaders tomorrow evening would offer "some time to reflect on how we will proceed".
Incidentally, many commentators have suggested that Martin Luther will be turning in his grave following the Pope's decision to issue a plenary indulgence for those who participate "actively and with devotion" at the youth day events. After all, the Augustinian monk Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door by way of protest at the Vatican's cheapskate selling of indulgences to help finance the re-building of St Peter's Basilica. But for all that, Pope Benedict, as a German theologian, has long respected and admired Luther.
Of at least equal import will be the Pope's visit to the Cologne synagogue, tomorrow morning. This will be only the second time that a Pope has entered a synagogue (John Paul II was the first when he visited the Rome synagogue in 1986) and the visit comes in a city which lost more than 11,000 Jews during the Nazi holocaust. It is also worth bearing in mind that as the pope who was, if briefly, a member of the Hitler Youth, Benedict knows this visit will have special resonance.
Relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism are always complex and often tense. From allegations about Pope Pius XII's "silence" during the Holocaust through to a recent Israeli accusation that Pope Benedict had failed to condemn anti-Israeli terrorism, there continue to be many sensitive issues. Here again, the Pope's words could go some way to helping maintain a spirit of dialogue between Catholic and Jew.
Likewise, the Islamic world will be listening carefully to the Pope's words when he meets Muslim leaders on Saturday evening. Germany has 4.5 million Muslims, many of them from Turkey. Last year, in an interview with Le Figaro, the then Cardinal Ratzinger argued that Turkey should not be allowed to join the European Union, saying that it comes from a "different continent, always in contrast with Europe".
This Pope has already tried to strike a positive note on inter-religious and ecumenical relations, extending an olive branch to other religions in his first homily as Pope in the Sistine Chapel on the day after his election.
That homily, at least in part, seemed in sharp contrast with the hardline, integrationalist tone of his "Jesus Dominus" document of August, 2000.
It is worth noting, however, that Pope Benedict has gone out of his way to reject the notion of a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West. He recently refuted the idea that the July 7th London bombings were "anti-Christian", describing them as part of something "more general".
Germany, too, is a major base for the Austrian-born "Wir Sind Kirche" (We Are Church) movement of progressive Catholics who vigorously challenge church teaching on sexuality, reproductive health and the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/Aids. They will be making themselves heard in Cologne this week, even though Pope Benedict may not be listening.
Above all, though, this week is about talking to young people, enrolling their energy and commitment and engaging their belief in a religiowhose church faces a serious crisis of vocations in the ever-more secular West.
On Vatican Radio, the Pope himself put it this way: "I want to show young people how beautiful it is to be Christian because people have the idea that Christianity is about rules, regulations and vetoes. I want to make it clear that Christianity is not a burden [ but rather] it is wonderful to be a Christian".