It will be his first trip outsied of Italy since becoming pope and it will be to his native land of German. This Thursday Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Cologne to attend a gathering at the World Youth Day. This is a biennial event which Pope John II endorsed through his his years. Benedict will make other stops along the way but it will be his talks at the youth gathering that could prove the most interesting.

In an interview today on Vatican Radio the pope gave an indication of his goals for the congress and how he sees the spiritual state of Europe.

He said the goal of the event was "a wave of new faith among young people, especially the youth in Germany and Europe."

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

"If this zest, this joy, to know Christ would come alive again and give the Church in Germany and Europe a new dynamic, then I think the aim ... would be achieved."

From the first moments as pope observers have noted that Benedict would focus on the spiritual maliase of Europe, which is conseiderd by many to virtually a post-Christian region.

We'll be watching this trip and making several posts on it in the coming days.