Youth gather for 'Catholic Woodstock'

"You think about church, it's something from the Middle Ages," says Bernhard Dreher, a young computer administrator from nearby Heidelberg. "Here at Youth Day the church is young. Here there is the rhythm of the masses, and it's more inviting, like a party."

The feeling is something evangelicals in the US and, increasingly, in Britain, have long seized upon as the way forward, says Brent Nelsen, chair of the political science department at Furman University in South Carolina. Mainline US churches, like their European counterparts, are losing members because they don't repackage "orthodox Christian doctrine to address current culture."

"The gospel is about reconciling all of humanity to its Creator, but all the culture seems to hear is the teaching on sex and women," says Nelsen, who has written several academic articles on religion and politics in Europe.

Pope Benedict XVI, who grew up in the conservative German state of Bavaria, has not done much to change that image. In his first 100 days, he has come out strongly against a gay marriage law passed in Spain and subtly backed calls to boycott an Italian referendum on stem-cell research that ultimately met defeat. Regarding women and marriage in the priesthood and contraception, issues important to Catholics in traditionally secular countries like France and Germany, Benedict XVI remains steadfastly conservative. In doing so, say critics, he risks alienating young people in the very area of the world in which he hopes to strengthen Catholicism - Europe.

"The only thing that makes us proud is that he's German, but the church needs to become more open," says Inga Keskering, 20, a Youth Day visitor who would like to see the Vatican develop a more liberal take on homosexuality and contraception. "Today, the world is open, but the church is not."

While the Pope's orthodoxy may not resonate widely within his home country, youth from more traditional parts of the Catholic world may be more receptive. "At the World Youth Day, you have many young people from outside Europe displaying their faith more freely and in a more uncomplicated manner than their European counterparts. The hope is that this self-evident form of faith rubs off on the more secular Europeans," says Mr. Wiedenhofer.

Evidence also exists of a rising traditionalism among Western youth as well. A study by Mark Gray, a researcher at Georgetown University, found that the generation born after 1982 is more devout than the generation before it. "They are more likely to pray every day and more likely to believe religion is important than the generation before them."

The youth in Cologne showcase a "big tent" approach, with "Pro-Life" T-shirts seen alongside revealing halter tops.

"Young people are not looking to churches for answers on social or sexual or personal moral problems," says Jan Kerkhofs, a Belgian theologian. "They look to them mainly for meaning in life."

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