Madrid, Spain, May 23, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, said this week he is convinced young people will flock to Cologne in the same way they have for previous World Youth Days convened by Pope John Paul II and that Benedict XVI will captivate young people in the same way as his predecessor.
“The person of the new Pope will motivate in young people an equally new attraction and will mobilize new groups anxious to meet him that previously were not planning on attending. He will captivate them in different way, but he will captivate them,” the cardinal said in an interview with the Spanish daily La Razón.”
Cardinal Rouco said Benedict XVI will be persuasive in his exhorting the young people to “live fully the experience of encounter with Christ: to live the ‘We have come to adore him’ theme of the XX World Youth Day in Cologne with new freshness.”
During the interview, the cardinal recalled his days as a student of Ratzinger when he was professor of theology in Ratisbona, Germany, noting that already by then the future Archbishop of Munich and Cardinal of the Church had much rapport with young students.