World Youth Day activities began in three German cities with simultaneous Masses, overflowing crowds, waving flags and the energy of more than 200,000 young people from countries all over the world.

In Cologne , Cardinal Joachim Meisner welcomed more than 50,000 pilgrims to his city by reminding them that Cologne was the city of the Magi, “the first pilgrims to Christ,” whose relics are said to be in the cathedral.

“You are all following in their footsteps,” he said in his homily at the Aug 16 Mass in RheinEnergie Stadium.

The cardinal was repeatedly interrupted by the applause of the flag-waving young people. On one occasion he told them to keep quiet and let him talk, but they cheered all the louder.

On another occasion, after he had finally silenced them, the cardinal, known as a strict theological disciplinarian, said with a smile, “The people will be saying I have a lot of authority, since I was able to get you to obey me.”

Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, opened the proceedings with greetings in five languages. There was especially loud applause when he spoke in Italian -- Italians are the largest group at World Youth Day and were by far the largest group at the Mass.

“You are entering on a great adventure, and the main figure in the adventure is you,” he said.

Following the arrival of the World Youth Day cross in the stadium, the service began with the World Youth Day hymn, We Have Come to Worship Him .

During the offertory procession, Cardinal Meisner had difficulty lifting the barrel of beer carried by the Cologne pilgrims, and he took evident pleasure at the carnival fool's cap they also brought. Other gifts were more traditional: British pilgrims carried food for the poor and roses.

The liturgies in Bonn and Dusseldorf were the same as in Cologne . In Bonn , World Youth Day officials said more than 100,000 packed the Hofgarten park for an opening Mass with Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabruck , the German bishops' head of youth affairs.

Deacon Andrew Royals, a transitional deacon from the Archdiocese of Washington and a seminarian at Mount St Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg , Md. , proclaimed the Gospel.

In Dusseldorf , LTU Arena was full more than an hour before the start of the Mass.

With the arena overflowing, some 6,000 packed the city's Burg Square to watch the Mass on giant TV screens.

Thousands listened with earnest faces as Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz , head of the German bishops' conference, said: “The call of God goes out to each one of us here today. The call of God always means a call for courage, although we would rather avoid responsibility and the load of going into a strange and uncertain future. But God is calling each of you individually.”

In Cologne , pilgrims from Hawaii watched on large-screen TVs outside the stadium, but pilgrims from the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., managed to get inside.

Massachusetts resident Sarah Downie said the pilgrims had not understood all the languages at the Mass, but were able to follow the liturgy in their booklets.

It was “incredible when you walked in there, because of the atmosphere and all those flags,” she said.

A young man who identified himself only as Sebastian from the German town of Zwickau described the “tremendous atmosphere” at the Mass and called it “almost as good as a football match.”

He said the Church leaders at the Mass showed that “maybe they were not so old after all.”

After the Mass ended, German President Horst Koehler made a surprise appearance, but he was prevented from speaking for several minutes as “the wave” made its way around the stadium four times.

Koehler, who often has criticised the lethargy of German society, gave up trying to speak and allowed the band to strike another chorus of a hymn, after which he told participants he wanted their energy and enthusiasm for the world and for Germany .

Speaking in both German and English, he called on the young people to work together to solve the world's problems and said he hoped the participants would go home with “a pocketful of telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.”

“Do not let go of the hands reaching out to you over the next few days,” he said.

(CNS)