According to the apostle John: "What distinguishes the Christian faith in all other religions is the certainty that the man Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity entered the world".

The Pope greeted the pilgrims in St. Peter's Square before the WYDs, "Days in the Dioceses" were held, which for the first time included volunteer experiences.

The fifteenth WYD officially began in the afternoon with the opening mass in Archbasilica of St. John Lateran presided by the Pope reserved for young Romans and Italians.

In the evening there was a Via Crucis with the cross of the Holy Year presided by Camillo Ruini from the Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli at the Colosseum.

John Paul II called the young people "sentinels in the morning" ("sentinelle del mattino") and invited them not to resign themselves to the injustices of the world.

The pope asked all participants to defend peace, to make the world more and more habitable and to say their "yes" to Christ as the center of their ideal and realization of happiness.

(Pope John Paul II) [10] In the morning the Eucharistic celebration was not held at Saint Peter's Square but in the University of Rome Tor Vergata,[11] followed by the recital of the Angelus prayer.

[16] The French delegation is quite important (70,000 people), a logical consequence of the enthusiasm for the World Youth Day 1997 in Paris, including also 12,000 Germans.