Pope Reaches Out To Young People

Pope Benedict XVI invited all young people to attend the upcoming World Youth Day events in Germany, according to a message published Monday.

In a greeting published in the Bild tabloid, the pope called the upcoming event in Cologne a "festival of faith, joy and brother-and sisterhood" and said it was a "loving gesture of providence" that he, a German, would preside over it.

World Youth Day opens Tuesday and runs for a week. Benedict begins his visit — his first foreign trip as pope — Thursday. The event will culminate Sunday in an open-air Mass led by the pope at the 640-acre Marienfeld, a former open-pit coal mine.

The ceremonies were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of young people from across the globe. Additional trains have been scheduled for the visiting pilgrims.

A no-fly zone during the pope's visit will force private planes to make long detours and cause delays at Cologne-Bonn's airport, air traffic controllers said Monday. The airport also will be closed for 45 minutes on the days Benedict arrives and departs.

Protest groups in Cologne, meanwhile, demanded the Vatican pay closer attention to the needs of younger Catholics, with some urging the church to change its opposition to the use of condoms.

A group of young activists calling themselves "Condoms4Life" insisted the bishops' hardened stance against condoms was contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"It is both moral and essential that the Catholic Church ... makes a stand for our lives and our safety by lifting this ban on condoms to prevent the spread of the pandemic," German activist Tobias Raschke, 26, told reporters.

Benedict told African bishops in June that abstinence was the only "fail-safe" way to prevent the spread of HIV, which has ravaged that continent.

By Melissa Eddy
By Melissa Eddy