Rome, Italy, Aug 14, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In his first interview since being elected to the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the joy of being Christian in the midst of the world and of the importance of renewing the faith in Europe through experiences such as World Youth Day Cologne.
The interview, conducted in German on the eve of World Youth Day, was partially broadcast Sunday night and will be aired in its entirety by Vatican Radio on Monday.
The Pope expressed his hope that WYD would “provide a new impulse to an old continent (Europe),” and he said the event “would be substantially an encounter between young Catholics from all over the world and also with those young people who are not Catholic but who desire to know if they can find among us an answer to their questions.”
“Ecumenical dialogue as such is not the principal theme (of WYD),” the Holy Father explained, but he did note that an ecumenical dimension would be present “in the encounters between young people: the young people do not only speak with the Pope, they speak with each other.”