As Pope Benedict XVI descended the steps of his aircraft on his first visit to his homeland since his election as pope, his papal hat was immediately swept away in the wind. Once he had reached the tarmac, to be greeted by German President Horst Köhler, the breeze decided to play havoc once again, this time sweeping his papal vestments straight over his head.

But those who believe in omens, should not get too worked up about the ill-wind blowing at Cologne-Bonn airport. The breeze was but a minor trial for Pope Benedict, who has arrived in a city transformed by an influx of about 400,000 young Christians.

He later travelled down the Rhine on a boat so the maximum number of pilgrims could get a look at their new pope. Thousands of Catholics thronged the banks, many waist deep in water to gain a better view.

"To all of you I appeal: open wide your hearts to God!" Pope Benedict proclaimed from the upper deck. For a man said to be less enamoured by massive public occasions than his predecessor, John Paul II, the new pope seemed to be coping rather well with the World Youth Day.

Today the pope will visit the synagogue in Cologne, where he will pay his respects to the victims of the Holocaust and begin his mission to establish better links with the Jewish community.

On Sunday he will preach a mass in front of an expected congregation of 800,000. The sacrament will be celebrated on a hill built specially for the occasion outside the city, so as many people as possible can witness the spectacle.

For the German papers, there is a real sense of pride that a German pope is returning home, though there is also speculation today that the country he is returning to is far less religious than Benedict might hope.

When those famous puffs of white smoke announced the election of Cardinal Razinger as pope on April 19, German tabloid die Bildzeitung famously celebrated the sense of national pride that a German had won the papacy. Its headline, "Wir Sind Papst!" ("We are the pope!"), was met with considerable amusement in Germany, and even spawned a range of T-shirts featuring the slogan. Today, the populist paper takes a more restrained line, but whilst celebrating the coming of the faithful to Cologne, it maintains a fairly patriotic tone.

"From all over the world, hundreds of thousands of young people came to receive a message of peace on German soil, from a German pope," its commentator Andreas Englisch writes today. "Germany, which in the last century did so much harm to the world during two world wars, today sends a strong signal of conciliation and fraternalism to the whole world. The times in which Germany was despised because of its past and was viewed with mistrust by the peoples of the world are over once and for all."

However, given German post-war sensitivities towards the banging of a nationalist drum, the paper is careful not to go too far. "Is this a reason to be proud?" Englisch asks. "No, above all, it is a reason to be thankful for the message of faith," he concludes.

The conservative daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine shares the sense of bonhomie and pride at the pope's visit. "The last time Joseph Ratzinger saw his homeland, he was still a cardinal. Now as pope, he is experiencing a triumphant return home." The paper acknowledges the passionate response of the young crowd in Cologne to their new pope; their enthusiasm was "authentic, touching and contagious," the commentator notes.

The crowd's reaction was particularly touching given the prevalent materialism of modern Germany, the paper continues. A Polish pope was integral to the fall of communist rule in his own country, so the paper rather pertinently asks: "What can the first visit of Benedict XVI bring about in his homeland?"

For young people who are used to attending half-empty church services, it must be reassuring and enlightening to come together in "the certainty that they are many, and that all over the world other like minded people have faith in Christ." Prevailing materialistic cynicism should be replaced by an acknowledgement of the powerful effect of the World Youth Festival, the paper says. "If the attitude emanating from these young people can have a contagious effect, this papal visit could also produce a historical turning point."

But the left-leaning Suedeutsche Zeitung wonders if the festivities and general enthusiasm of the Cologne crowds don't hide a more complicated picture. The paper concentrates on a palpable sense of "alienation", felt by many in the crowded city. "Most young people, even those who cheer for the pope in Cologne, do not hold rigidly to the strict lessons on marriage, family and contraception...The Cologne Christian festival can hardly conceal this division," the commentator says.

If this is true, then surely Catholicism is missing a beat, the paper wonders. "The Catholic Church, at least in the western world, is running the risk of missing out on these young people who still have an interest in questions of faith, even in these secular times." But still, modernization within the church remains firmly off the agenda.

The commentator laments that "the organizational forms and teachings of the church have less to do with a core of Christian ethics as they do with dogmatic rigidity. The belittlement of women, celibacy for priests and above all the inhibited sexual morals, allow Catholicism to appear oddly quixotic, even at its own youth festival."

Financial Times Deutschland is prepared to cut the new pope a little more slack. "His program in Cologne, for instance the visit to a synagogue and talks with representatives of the evangelical church, demonstrate a commitment to understanding and to dialogue on ecumenism and reconciliation."

Admittedly, the paper continues, "it would be naïve to believe that this signifies an adjustment of Benedict's conservative views and dogma." It remains to be seen what his papacy will deliver. "However, for the moment," the commentator contentedly concludes, "for the enthusiasm of these days and the value of the positive and peaceful pictures from Cologne, these questions do not matter."