World Youth Day 2005
The XX. World Youth Day in Cologne ( Italian XX. Giornata mondiale della gioventù Colonia GMG) was a Catholic youth meeting that took place from August 16 to 21, 2005 in the Archdiocese of Cologne .
In the run-up to this, the days of the meeting took place in all German dioceses from August 11th to 15th .
The Pope invited the world's youth to the twentieth World Youth Day (WYD) in Germany. The motto from the Gospel of Matthew was:
This sentence is the Epiphany awarded whose relics in the Three Kings Shrine of Cologne Cathedral are kept.
According to the organizers, around 800,000 registered pilgrims from 193 countries as well as 759 bishops , including 60 cardinals and 10,000 priests, took part in the World Youth Day . In addition, 7,700 journalists were accredited . The number of participants at the final fair rose to 1.1 million. This made the closing fair of World Youth Day the largest fair ever celebrated in Germany.
The mood was clouded over the assassination attempt on Brother Roger on August 16 in Taizé , France . On this occasion, a prayer evening was celebrated at short notice in Groß St. Martin , during which many Taizé songs were sung.
program
Paths to Cologne
For many pilgrims and celebrating Pope enthusiasts, World Youth Day began much earlier. They took the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage lasting several days .
A 3.80 meter high wooden cross donated by Pope John Paul II in 1984 has been passed on from one German diocese to the next as a World Youth Day Cross under the motto "Cross Moved " in preparation for World Youth Day .
Between July 8th and August 15th, the cross was carried on a 40-day pilgrimage from Dresden on the Ecumenical Pilgrimage Route along the historic Via Regia to Cologne. About 40 bishops went with the individual stages. The route was chosen with care:
- The Diocese of Dresden-Meißen is the partner diocese of the Archdiocese of Cologne
- Just as the magicians are said to have come to Bethlehem from the east , so did the pilgrims from the east to Cologne
- The choice fell deliberately on the Ecumenical Pilgrimage , which was developed jointly by Catholic and Protestant Christians , in order to express ecumenical interest and to name the efforts for Christian unity as a priority goal of World Youth Day.
Days of Encounter
Before the actual World Youth Day in Cologne, the meeting days took place in the German dioceses . The local youth met their guests from all over the world during these days to prepare and get in the mood for the big event together with representatives of the church and social institutions. The groups then traveled together to the parishes of the Archdiocese of Cologne.
Pope visit
The venue in Cologne was determined during the term of office of John Paul II. The Pope, who died in April 2005 and who initiated this festival of faith and encounter after the two youth meetings in Rome in 1984 and on Christmas 1985 as World Youth Day, wanted to come to the cathedral himself. In view of his poor health, the organizers had already taken appropriate precautions. His successor, Benedict XVI. , confirmed his participation in World Youth Day shortly after his election. For the German Pope, the visit to his home country was the first official trip abroad as head of the Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI. was in Cologne from August 18th to 21st. On the day he was greeted, according to the organizer, a total of 600,000 pilgrims were present in Cologne to greet the Pope on the Rhine or in the city center. During the first days, representative tasks were on the program before he led the central church service on the weekend . The representative tasks included a meeting with Federal President Horst Köhler in the Villa Hammerschmidt on August 19 and an audience on the following day for Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder , Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse , CDU Chairwoman Angela Merkel and NRW Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers . On August 19, the Pope visited at the invitation of the synagogue community in Cologne , the Synagogue of Cologne . This was the first synagogue visit by a Pope in Germany.
Events
Church services
World Youth Day was officially opened on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 at 5:00 p.m. with three decentralized services in Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf, while church bells rang for 15 minutes throughout the Archdiocese of Cologne. In Bonn, youth bishop Franz-Josef Bode ( Bishop of Osnabrück ) celebrated in front of 100,000 people on the Hofgartenwiese in front of the electoral palace , in the Rheinenergiestadion Cologne Joachim Cardinal Meisner ( Archbishop of Cologne) (50,000 visitors) and in the LTU arena Düsseldorf Karl Cardinal Lehmann (Bishop von Mainz and then chairman of the German Bishops' Conference ) (60,000 visitors). The visitor information is not officially confirmed.
The high point of World Youth Day was the Vigil and Holy Mass with the Pope. On the evening of August 20, the Pope celebrated the Vigil with the pilgrims on the Marienfeld from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (around 800,000 visitors). The following day, between 10:00 and 12:45, he celebrated the solemn papal mass at the end of World Youth Day (around 1.1 million visitors). The Marienfeld, which lies between Kerpen -Türnich and Frechen -Habbelrath near Cologne, used to be an open- cast brown coal mine and is now used for agriculture. As a stage for the altar , a ten-meter-high hill was specially built, which Cardinal Meisner named the Mountain of 70 Nations . This hill was decorated with numerous candles so that it could also be seen from the back of the Marienfeld. During the construction of the hill, pilgrims from these countries symbolically poured out little sacks of earth they had brought with them. Large screens also allowed pilgrims in the back of the field to see what was happening. At the end of Holy Mass, the Pope invited to the next World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008 .
Spiritual events
On the one hand, the participants had the opportunity to take part in daily catechesis . The pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral , for which every pilgrim received a suggested date, was considered one of these catechesis. According to the organizers, around 400 more such religious instruction were offered in more than 30 languages at 249 locations in the Archdiocese of Cologne. A bishop spoke and answered questions from the young people. The catecheses were accompanied by musical groups or another supporting program. Throughout the week, all the churches, including many around the clock, were open for silence, prayer, singing and conversation. Among these churches were 20 inner-city churches (16 in Cologne and two each in Düsseldorf and Bonn ), which belonged to the so-called spiritual center. Here the pilgrims were guaranteed a constant spiritual program such as Eucharistic adoration , devotions and the Liturgy of the Hours . Holy masses were celebrated daily in the many churches and the sacrament of penance ( confession ) was administered around the clock . There was also a central offer for this in Halls 6, 7 and 8 of Koelnmesse . From 8 a.m. to midnight, over 100 priests were available for talks in over 30 different languages every day.
Sociopolitical events
In around 50 meeting centers distributed throughout the region, spaces have been created to promote dialogue between different groups and nationalities. Various associations, communities, movements and interest groups provided a rich information program, for example in panel discussions, stage presentations or café meeting points.
At the initiative of the BDKJ , the International Youthhearing for Justice and Peace took place on Wednesday, August 17th, in the Stollwerck community center in Cologne , organized by the umbrella organization of Catholic youth organizations together with the church aid organization Misereor and the German Commission of Justitia et Pax . Around 300 young people from seventeen nations discussed questions of global justice from a Christian perspective and formulated demands to the international community, which were presented by Federal Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul at the UN General Assembly in September 2005 . The BDKJ advocates a continuation of youthhearing at the XXIII. World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney .
Cultural event
In addition to the spiritual content, there were also numerous cultural events, such as special exhibitions in museums. In Cologne and the large neighboring cities of Düsseldorf and Bonn, which belong to the diocese of Cologne, concerts were held after the opening services. Local groups such as the Höhner , the Bläck Fööss and the Cologne youth choir Sankt Stephan performed as well as international stars and spiritual musicians.
On August 17th, a big music picnic was organized for the pilgrims in the three big cities of Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf. There was cake and cocoa for free, while singers and music groups from different countries played music for the guests.
In the run-up to World Youth Day there was the song Du für mich by Kathi Stimmer-Salzeder , which accompanied the WYD-Cross on its way through Germany to Cologne. By Gregor Linßen the official song of World Youth Day comes with the title Venimus adorare eum , the Latin translation of the motto.
Perception in the media and the public
Contrary to the expectations of many observers, Pope Benedict XVI grew. at the World Youth Day in Cologne visible in his new role of being a spiritual reference point for the hopes of a globalized church. Encounters with top representatives of other Christian denominations, Judaism and Islam, but also with politics, were seen as a step towards ecumenism .
The young people gave the Pope an enthusiastic welcome, and even during the services, Benedetto choirs and rhythmic clapping could be heard over and over again .
The WDR reported intensively on the events around the World Youth Day both on television and on the radio (World Youth Day radio from WDR 5). The most important events were shown live on ARD , ZDF and Phoenix , the total duration of the broadcasts was around 120 hours. The television pictures were taken over by the international media. Around 250 million people worldwide saw the solemn closing service on Marienfeld.
In the course of the World Youth Day, a WebTV channel was also opened that reported exclusively on the events during the World Youth Day. The DuMont Schauberg publishing house distributed free special editions of its tabloid magazine Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger DIREKT every day .
organization
Local organization
The local organization and implementation of the World Youth Day was the task of the World Youth Day gGmbH in Cologne, which was in constant contact with the Pontifical Council for the Laity in the Vatican, which was the actual organizer of this major event. One drawback is that every local organization of a World Youth Day starts almost from scratch, as there is no personal continuity among the organizers; You can only fall back on the experiences of the predecessor to a very limited extent, since every World Youth Day with its local infrastructure presents a new challenge. Nevertheless, there are always some representatives of an upcoming World Youth Day who look over the shoulders of the organizers of the current World Youth Day in the last few weeks before the event and thus try to avoid possible mistakes in the future.
Mobility concept
In order to be able to handle the arrival and departure of the pilgrims in the most orderly manner possible, the WJT gGmbH had a mobility concept drawn up. To this end, in cooperation with the municipalities concerned and the public transport companies, measures were put together for the whole week to handle the additional traffic volumes, with the major events such as the welcome ceremony for the Pope and the closing mass, to which all pilgrims and the population were invited, in particular Presented planners with an extraordinary task. In addition to planning the transport of the pilgrims, the transport planners from Aachen (IVV) commissioned with the mobility concept also worked out measures to protect the surrounding communities from the traffic rush. For this purpose, special installation concepts at train stations, provisional footpaths and temporary car and bus parking spaces for approx. 8000 coaches had to be planned and prepared. Furthermore, a blocking concept was developed and implemented and a large-scale diversion system was set up. For the closure of the A1 motorway as a parking lot for around 1,800 buses, diversion signs have already been set up within a 70 km radius.
In order to cope with the masses of visitors in the greater Cologne area, the Weltjugendtag gGmbH worked closely with the Cologne transport companies , which in turn cooperated with other local transport companies. For example, during rush hour the tram cycle was reduced to two minutes and a shuttle service was set up in the direction of Marienfeld. Several hundred buses were available for this, which took routes to Marienfeld. Although more than 1.1 million people came to the final event (the mobility concept was designed for 900,000 pilgrims), the forecast departure times of around 10 to 11 hours could be kept.
Accommodation and catering
For the World Youth Day 2005, a total of more than half a million accommodations were sought in the area of the Archdiocese of Cologne . Around 440,000 quarters were made available for guests in communal accommodation such as schools and gyms. In addition, the World Youth Day Office sought 80,000 private accommodation. To obtain these accommodations, the Archbishop of Cologne, Joachim Cardinal Meisner , started the “Hostel Wanted” campaign on July 1, 2004 .
Around 300 mobile restaurants took care of the physical well-being of the pilgrims on World Youth Day.
Papal program
The visit program of Benedict XVI. has been prepared in the Vatican itself. Cardinal State Secretary Angelo Sodano , who led the papal entourage, kept in contact with the Roman headquarters and made additional appointments for Pope Benedict. He was supported by the Vatican "Minister of the Interior", Archbishop Leonardo Sandri . The responsible department head in the State Secretariat, the Eichstätter Prelate Christoph Kühn , also played an important role as a contact person for the state agencies, the Federal President and the Federal Government . The master of ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini and his assistant Giulio Viviani were of the highest importance . They were there hours before the services, laying out the vestments, checking texts and devices and checking that the planners on site had thought of everything. The Pope's travel marshal , Bishop Renato Boccardo , had meticulously prepared the itinerary. Since 2003, he has been inspecting places at local appointments, selecting means of transport, determining routes, clarifying safety issues and clarifying responsibilities. During the visit, he and his co-organizer Alberto Gasbarri bore the greatest responsibility.
Volunteers
In addition to the church helpers and the employees (mostly long-term volunteers) of the World Youth Day gGmbH, around 23,000 volunteers from more than 160 countries were deployed throughout the Archdiocese of Cologne during the main week of the World Youth Day, who tried to ensure the smooth running of the World Youth Day as far as possible. Their places of work were wherever pilgrims could be: from arrival to registration, accommodation, food, at info points, spiritual and secular programs, during the cathedral pilgrimage, on the Marienfeld, right through to departure. For the first time, “Volunteer Support Managers” were used at the World Youth Day in Cologne. Their main task (after the planning) was to take care of the volunteers' psychosocial affairs. The red (volunteer) and green (volunteer support manager) t-shirts were everywhere. In his sermon at the closing service for the volunteers on the day after the official end of World Youth Day, Cardinal Joachim Meisner compared the work of the volunteers with the foundations of Cologne Cathedral: Without the foundations, the cathedral would not exist and without the volunteers there would be World Youth Day in Cologne not given (analogously). "As Archbishop of Cologne I am proud of you and thank you."
Problems
The unexpectedly high number of visitors led to sometimes chaotic conditions during the entire World Youth Day, especially in Cologne and at the closing service on Marienfeld. At major events such as the opening service on Tuesday, August 16 and the Pope's visit on Thursday, August 18, the transport network practically came to a standstill. In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, 19 pilgrims suffered circulatory breakdowns due to the oppressive mass in an incident at the completely overcrowded Cologne main station .
After the opening services in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Bonn, the public transport network had almost completely collapsed by early morning. Trams jammed and trains were not allowed into the stations due to controls by the federal police, which led to significant delays and traffic jams. Announcements at train stations in the vicinity of Cologne were only made in German and were therefore barely or not understandable for guests from abroad, which caused further disorientation.
The distribution of food was especially difficult. The plan was to supply the pilgrims near their quarters throughout the Rhineland. However, these mostly drove to the central event locations in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bonn, where there were then bottlenecks. In addition, the quarters were not provided with the planned number of meals on time.
When the pilgrims left Marienfeld, there were long traffic jams, especially on the motorway in the direction of Cologne.
Marienfeld / final mass
There were also some difficulties at Marienfeld , mainly because of the unexpectedly high number of pilgrims. Since the organizers expected their arrival at a later date, thousands of pilgrims came to Marienfeld without admission controls. As a result, they were able to enter the field quite quickly, and despite the control of over a million people, there were no long lines. On the other hand, some of the pilgrims and visitors did not keep to the fields assigned to them. In particular, the areas at Pope's hill were quickly overcrowded. The food distribution problems described above continued here. Around Saturday evening, the orderly food distribution was finally closed and the food was unloaded from the trucks on pallets. From this moment on, the catering company was no longer active and controlled food distribution was no longer possible. There were complaints here mainly because the pilgrims had paid a lot of money for the so-called “pilgrim package” with seat reservations and food stamps.
In some areas of Marienfeld there were also complaints about the existing sanitary facilities (so-called Dixi toilets ) and rubbish bins because they were overfilled and there was also a lack of toilet paper after only the first three hours on Saturday. These problems were resolved during the night from Saturday to Sunday after around 5000 volunteers who were not originally assigned to work at Marienfeld were mobilized.
Thanks to the disciplined and calm behavior of the pilgrims, however, there were only relatively few emergency missions (mostly due to exhaustion or hypothermia). The medical and rescue service was managed by the Malteser Aid Service with the participation of all aid organizations .
There were also major problems on departure, so that on Sunday emergency quarters had to be set up for around 6000 stranded pilgrims. Because there was only one lane for all feeder buses, all buses had to turn the same loop and wait for each individual bus when boarding. Neither the police nor the local organization can be blamed for this, as the transport network was not designed for the quick arrival and departure of 1.1 million people.
police
The operational concept and the behavior of the police gave numerous cause for criticism. Elaborate admission controls were carried out in front of Cologne's Domplatte, so that pilgrims, including small children, had to wait for hours in the blazing sun. Since the vast majority of pilgrims used the same train lines to get to their accommodations, the police leadership initially correctly assumed that these trains would be hopelessly overloaded. However, entire stations were then cordoned off instead of the affected tracks, so that travelers in other directions could not get onto the consequently completely deserted platforms. Several trains ran completely empty, several travelers, including many families with small children, were stuck in Cologne. In addition, the police forces, who had come together from all over Germany, were obviously insufficiently prepared for their deployment. None of the officers deployed on site had a card to help pilgrims looking for their way, or knew about the overall situation: pilgrims, auxiliary and supply vehicles were misdirected and misdirected, which sometimes caused chaos in the first place.
financing
The estimated total expenditure for World Youth Day is 115 million euros compared to an original budget of 100 million euros. Reasons for the higher costs include: a. the higher number of pilgrims who came to World Youth Day, as well as the re-planning of the site for the final event. The originally planned site - the Hangelar airfield , which is largely designated as a legally protected biotope because of its valuable semi-arid grassland, and an adjacent former gravel pit with rare species, was abandoned in the summer of 2004 after the Federal Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) filed a lawsuit and briefly announced the abandonment of the Hangelar site before the judgment was announced. Presumably, the impending high costs of clearing the site of ordnance - the airfield was exposed to intense fire during the Second World War - was a decisive reason for the abandonment of the site. As the property owner, the Federal Republic of Germany refused to cover these costs.
The Catholic Church in Germany contributed 30 million euros to the expenditure. 15 million euros came from public funds, with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone contributing three million euros. Another part of the funding was obtained through donations and income from campaigns for World Youth Day. 40% of the funding was to be covered by the pilgrimage contributions, with the participants paying different contributions according to their countries of origin.
The World Youth Day also financed part of the expenses with the sale of merchandising items, such as rosaries , T-shirts, hats and candles. Exact figures about income and expenses are not known.
criticism
World Youth Day as an event and Pope cult
Critics also accused the 20th World Youth Day of imitating major events in the style of Baptist , television and mass preacher Billy Graham too large . From the traditionalist side it was said that the use of elements of sacropop contradicts the dignity of the Holy Mass. In the FAZ the insignificance of parts of the musical new creations (sacropop) for the World Youth Day was criticized. The church has completely lost its role as the driving force behind musical developments.
The organizers of the World Youth Day were further accused of having organized less a Catholic World Youth Day than a Catholic World Pope Day . Above all, the media's focus on the Pope was criticized.
Counter and critical events during World Youth Day
As a protest against World Youth Day and the Catholic Church, the non- religious zone of the Giordano Bruno Foundation offered events such as a party leaving the church and information on the WYD area. The We are Church movement drew attention to the ban on contraceptive and HIV infection preventive agents by the official Church with its action Good Catholics Use Condoms . The Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and the Church (HuK) had created its own themed portal with events on the homosexual problem. Overall, the media response to the counter-events was low.
literature
- Research consortium WJT, / Gebhardt, Winfried / Hepp, Andreas / Hitzler, Ronald / Pfadenhauer, Michaela / Reuter, Julia / Vogelgesang, Waldemar / Engelfried-Rave, Ursula / Hunold, Jörg / Krönert, Veronika: Megaparty Glaubensfest. World Youth Day: Experience - Media - Organization . From the series: Erlebniswelten 12, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15464-0 .
- Johannes Loy, Jürgen Peperhowe: Celebrations of Faith 2005. Münster - Cologne - Rome. Diocese anniversary - election of the Pope - World Youth Day - beatification . Aschendorff, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-402-00407-0 .
- Christian Klenk: A German Pope becomes a media star. Benedict XVI. and the Cologne World Youth Day in the press. From the series: Religion - Media - Communication, Vol. 4, Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0930-0 .
honors and awards
- 2006 - The Federal Republic of Germany awarded Nunciature Councilor Msgr. Christoph Kühn for the organization of the papal visit with the Cross of Merit on ribbon .
- 2007 - Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 2007, for the organizers Hermann-Josef Johanns and Auxiliary Bishop Heiner Koch
Individual evidence
Web links
Wikinews: World Youth Day 2005 - in the news- WYD Cologne 2005 ( Memento from March 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Link catalog on the topic of World Youth Day at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- WDR dossier on World Youth Day