Pope's Personal Touch at Youth Rally

Using a more personal touch, Pope Benedict XVI told some 25,000 young people today of his youth in Nazi Germany and urged them to develop a closer relationship to God.

"My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers," he said. "Its influence grew – infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion – before it was fully recognized for the monster it was. It banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good."

The youth rally at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers was filled with spontaneous song and massive bursts of applause at the names of saints and popes. On the fifth day of Pope Benedict’s six-day trip to the U.S., it comes as a joyfully emotional counterpoint to the scripted, solemn gatherings that preceded it. And the pope, not one to seed his talks with applause lines, responded to the outpouring with a more animated presentation that drew even more cheers.

In his talk, the pope returned to his message about finding truth and true freedom in a world that doesn’t understand either. But he took it down a few notches from doctoral-level lecture to senior-year honors seminar for undergraduates.

The pope drew cheers as he told the audience: "Let your imaginations soar freely along the limitless expanse of the horizons of Christian discipleship. Sometimes we are looked upon as people who speak only of prohibitions. Nothing could be further from the truth!" He continued: "Authentic Christian discipleship is marked by a sense of wonder."

He spoke to the young audience about freedom, "a delicate value. It can be misunderstood or misused so as to lead not to the happiness which we all expect it to yield, but to a dark arena of manipulation in which our understanding of self and the world becomes confused, or even distorted by those who have an ulterior agenda."

The pope urged an audience that’s grown up in the age of multi-tasking to devote time to silent contemplation. "Do you leave space to hear God’s whisper, calling you forth into goodness?" he asked. "Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness, listen to God, adore him in the Eucharist. Let his word shape your journey as an unfolding of holiness."

And he closed with a word about the importance of considering life as a sister, brother or priest.

"I am glad to know that your numbers are increasing!" he said to applause.

Then the crowd broke into a chant: "We love you, we love you."

"Thank you," Benedict responded. "Thank you so much."

Photos. Top: Getty Images/Chris McGrath.
Below: Kelly Clarkson sings at rally. She later sang "Ave Maria" for the pope. AP.