Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Palm Sunday Mass today, opening the Catholic Church's solemn Holy Week.

At the start of the celebration, Benedict blessed palms and olive branches with holy water and then processed through St Peter's Square, wearing intricate, red-and gold-brocaded vestments and clutching a woven palm frond.

Palm today commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's most solemn week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Benedict reminded the faithful that during Holy Week, they would be recalling what he called the "most sublime drama in history, which is the drama of our salvation."

Sunday also marked a lead-up celebration to the Catholic Church's annual World Youth Day, and young people were very much on hand during the open-air service on a blustery spring day. A few hundred carried massive palm fronds at the start of the procession through the square. Benedict plans to attend World Youth Day itself in Sydney, Australia, in July.

In his homily, Benedict urged the faithful to follow God with the innocence and purity of a child's heart. "To recognize God, we must abandon the pride that dazzles us, that seeks to push us away from God," he said. To find God, he said, "we must learn to see with a young heart, one which isn t blocked by prejudice and dazzled by interests." Benedict has a busy week coming up, culminating with Easter Sunday next weekend. 

Source : PTI