Pope says being a Christian is 'beautiful'

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday he hopes his trip to a youth gathering in Germany spurs a wave of new faith in Europe by showing that Christianity brings "zest and joy" to life and is not a religion of burdensome rules and prohibitions.

The German-born Benedict also told Vatican Radio's German edition that "providence wanted my first trip abroad to take me to Germany."

He will fly to Cologne on Thursday to begin a four-day visit for World Youth Day, a Catholic jamboree of rallies and religious services that his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had hoped to attend.

Referring to the hundreds of thousands of young people expected at the gathering, Benedict said: "I would like to show them how beautiful it is to be Christian, because the widespread idea which continues to exist is that Christianity is composed of laws and bans which one has to keep and, hence, is something toilsome and burdensome.

He said that leads many to think life is freer without the church.

"I want to make clear that it is not a burden to be carried with great love and realization, but is like having wings. It is wonderful to be a Christian with this knowledge that it gives us a great breadth, a large community," Benedict said.

Vatican Radio provided an English translation of the 15-minute interview, which was conducted at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer palace in the Alban Hills outside Rome.

Benedict was asked to describe the "ideal aim" for his Cologne trip. He laughed and replied: "Yes, well, a wave of new faith among young people, especially the youth in Germany, and Europe."

In Germany, he added, "many Christian things occur, but there is also a great fatigue, and so we are concerned with structural questions, that the zest and the joy of faith are missing."

Earlier in the day, Benedict raised the same theme in remarks to pilgrims and tourists at his summer residence.

He urged young people who will be in Cologne to be inspired by "shining examples of evangelical heroism."

Benedict cited two 20th century people: Jewish-born nun Edith Stein, who was killed at the Nazis' Auschwitz camp and made a saint in 1998, and Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who sacrificed his life at Auschwitz so a man with a family could live and was made a saint in 1982.

Controversy has accompanied the church honors that John Paul II desired for both figures. Stein's canonization brought charges that Roman Catholics were denying Jews' disproportionate suffering in the Holocaust. In Kolbe's case, some theologians questioned his being hailed as a martyr, since he didn't strictly die for the church.

Benedict's trip to Cologne is to culminate with him presiding at an open-air Mass next Sunday at the 640-acre Marienfeld, a former open-pit coal mine where as many as 1 million people are expected.

"I invite you to join me during these days in praying for the success of the coming World Youth Day in Cologne," the pope told the pilgrims at Castel Gandolfo.