Thousands of young Catholics have converged upon the city of Cologne, Germany to see the Pope and, more importantly, to share and celebrate their faith.

World Youth Day has a packed schedule for the youngsters with daily Mass, church visits, lectures on Catholic teaching just some of the events to occupy the young pilgrims who have travelled from countries the world across, including some in which Christianity is still threatened daily with oppression.

Others have come from countries in which Christianity is now part of the daily vocabulary and are facing a threat of a different kind: that of rising secularism and cynicism.

“It’s a large part of my life, but its kind of hard to have it be a large part of my life, because you get made fun of a lot,” said Ellen Anderson, 16, of Hanover, Massachusetts, just one of around 350 high school and college students from the Archdiocese of Boston who are attending World Youth Day. She said, “I’m looking to enrich my faith.”

World Youth Day has been doing just that since it started on Tuesday. Pope Benedict XVI, in the first foreign visit of his pontificate, will arrive Thursday and give an outdoor Mass on Sunday.

Around 400,000 youngsters have already registered for the event, say organisers, although numbers are expected to rise toward Sunday.

City streets are reaching almost full capacity, particularly around the Cathedral area, as many of the World Youth Day participants wrangle for entry to the Cathedral for the chance to see a gold sarcophagus that, according to church officials, contains relics of the three magi who paid homage to the baby Jesus 2,000 years ago.

Andersen was one of the many pilgrims from the Boston area who said they had turned to Catholicism after drifting away in their earlier childhoods. They agreed that they found solace from Mass and from the Church’s values. Their increased activism comes interestingly at the same time as parish closures and sex abuse scandals continue to rock the Catholic Church.

“There are a lot of people in my town that are Catholic, but not a lot are practicing,” said Lisa M. Glen, 16, of Denham, Massachusetts, who said that she came to Catholicism through a youth ministry at her local church.

“Before I started going to church every Sunday, I wouldn’t listen to Christian music or hang out with people that went to church,” said Glen. “Now my every day life resolves around the church.” Glen admitted to listening to Christian rock music, particularly Jars of Clay, Third Day, Switchfoot. She also said she now looks forward to her church’s weekly Monday night prayer sessions.

“If I kept hanging out with the friends I hung out with before, I’d probably not be on the right track,” she admitted.

Although many of the youths are clearly excited about the Pope attending the event, Michael St Bernard, 16, also of Denham, said that he would love to have seen Pope John Paul. He said: “People constantly tell me stories of how awesome and amazing it was to see the pope, just for like two seconds.” He admitted, “This pope probably won’t be able to live up to Pope John Paul, but he’ll do his part.”

Rev Thomas A. Dunne, one of the leaders of the Boston delegation and director of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of Boston said: “This is an experience in which a lot of what we expect from modern life is taken away from them - it’s a pilgrimage not a tour, and hot and crowded, and there are lines.” He continued: “But while you’re there, you’re there you’re with people from all over the world who share the same beliefs and give expression to those beliefs, quite openly and without fear.”

Nancy Shum, 18, of East Boston, who attended the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto, admitted that being a Catholic was not always easy and not always the popular choice: “Sometimes you feel like you’re the only Catholic youth, that other people don’t understand you, but then you go to World Youth Day and everyone there is Catholic, everyone is finding a relationship with God, and it just amazes me.”

She went on to describe how attending the Toronto World Youth Day helped bring her closer to God: “I used to just go (to church) every Sunday, but I didn’t really get it. But when I went to Toronto I got that God is so much more than the light in the tabernacle – now I find him a personal friend, a person of love.”

Brian Flaherty, 29, of Dracut also welcomed World Youth Day as a break from the negative focus of the public limelight on the Catholic Church. He said: “I’d like to get rejuvenated – I’m very active in the church, and my faith is very strong, but for years we’ve been focused on money and sexual abuse, and I’m looking at this as an oasis to focus on what really matters, which is my faith in Jesus.”

The 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto was the last to be attended by Pope John Paul II.