The Pope's Address to the German Bishops

Zenit News Agency has it here

Note the consistent theme:

You yourselves are more aware of this than anyone, as is evident from your pastoral letter of Sept. 21, 2004, in commemoration of the 1,250th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Boniface. In that letter, quoting the Jesuit Father Alfred Delp, you stated that "we have become a mission territory." As a native of this country that I hold so dear, I feel particularly affected by its problems. Today I want to assure you of my affection and solidarity, along with that of the entire College of Bishops, and I encourage you to remain united and to persevere undaunted in your mission. The Church in Germany needs to become ever more missionary, committed to finding the best ways to pass on the faith to future generations.

This is the panorama that World Youth Day opens up before us: It invites us to look to the future. For the Church, and especially for pastors, parents and educators, young people are a living call to faith and hope. My venerable Predecessor, in choosing for this 20th World Youth Day the theme: "We Have Come To Worship Him" (Matthew 2:2), implicitly confirmed this call. He marked out a clear path for young people to follow. He urged them to seek Christ, with the Magi as their model; he invited them to follow the star, a reflection of Christ in the firmament of personal and social life; he trained them, by his strong but gentle example, to bend the knee before God made man, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and to acknowledge in him the Redeemer of humanity.

That same model which he proposed to young people, John Paul II also offered to their pastors, as a means of guiding their ministry among the younger generation and the whole family of the Church. The Way, the Truth and the Life which everyone seeks, particularly every young person, have been entrusted to us pastors by Christ himself, who has made us his witnesses and ministers of his Gospel (cf. Matthew 28:18-20). Consequently we must neither lessen the intensity of the search nor conceal the truth, but rather maintain the fruitful tension that exists between these two poles: a tension that corresponds profoundly to the character of modern man. With the light and strength that come from this gift, namely the Gospel which the Holy Spirit ceaselessly makes alive and active, we can proclaim Christ fearlessly and invite everyone not to be afraid to open their hearts to him, for we are convinced that in him is found the fullness of life and happiness.

This means being a Church open to the future, and therefore one full of promise for coming generations. Young people, in fact, are not looking for a Church which panders to youth but one which is truly young in spirit; a Church completely open to Christ, the new Man. This is the commitment that we wish to make today, at this truly significant moment, at the conclusion of this great event for youth, an event which has forced us to think about the future of the Church and of society. It is in this positive and hope-filled light that we can confidently confront the most difficult issues facing the Church in Germany. Once again young people are providing us, their pastors, with a salutary stimulus, for they are asking us to be consistent, united and courageous. We for our part must train them in patience, in discernment, in healthy realism. Yet there can be no false compromise, no watering down of the Gospel

Moral Relativism is the existential dead-end of the age. When every man, woman and child becomes their own island according to the norms of this subjectivist utopia, genuine relationships cease to exist. Common ground becomes far too difficult to sustain them. More vitally, when everybody ignores the truth in favor of the illusion called "my truth", We lose our membership in him. Therefore, we lose all sense of relationship with our true brothers and sisters--the members of Love and Truth. Already we see the anguish and pain that such utopian delusions have caused Europe. The continent's population faces cultural extinction as the birthrate falls and islamic immigrants--more than a few fundamentalist and even radicalized--flood the EU nations. Doubting the greatness of a civilization founded upon Truth and Love, the Europeans wander the existential desert of their own making.

The young may not want any part of this. How can they escape? Only by clinging to the Truth. Our Holy Father, therfore, exorts the German Church to always honor that truth and hold it out to the young. He's confident they'll grab hold. He has good reasons to be.