Castel, Gandolfo, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Germany this month, was an extraordinary experience and that the hundreds of thousands of young people who joined him there from around the world were filled with great hope.
The German-born Benedict looked radiant as reflected on his four-day trip to Cologne for World Youth Day activities.
"It really was an extraordinary ecclesial experience at Cologne last week," Benedict said, addressing pilgrims and tourists at the papal summer castle in Castel Gandolfo, a hill town on the outskirts of Rome.
The pontiff said that the young participants departed from the city "animated by a great hope, without nonetheless losing sight of the not few difficulties, the obstacles and the problems that in our time accompany the authentic search for Christ and faithful adhesion to his Gospel."
He praised the gathering as a "providential event of grace for the entire church."
Benedict has been continuing the drive by his predecessor, John Paul II, to invigorate the faithful with dynamic evangelization.
"Wherever God does not occupy the first place ... man's dignity is at risk," Benedict told the crowd