COLOGNE, Germany -- After nearly a week of being very low-key about their nationality, a group of young Catholics from the South Hills began flying the stars and stripes yesterday.

WORLD YOUTH DAY

Eckehard Schulz, Associated Press Pilgrims from the United States gather in front of a giant poster of Pope Benedict XVI during the World Youth Day in the city of Cologne, western Germany, yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI arrived Thursday on his first foreign trip as pontiff to take part in the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage News updates from the Associated Press Photo journal World Youth Day activities and papal visit

While Pope Benedict XVI visited a synagogue in a city flooded with pilgrims who have come to see him, the teens and young adults from St. Bernard in Mt. Lebanon and Our Lady of Grace in Scott visited churches. They also acquired a large American flag to march behind today as they hike to the field where they will camp overnight before Benedict celebrates Mass there tomorrow.

All pilgrims from the United States had been warned not to display their flag because it might make them targets of political hatred. Many carried state flags -- the bear of California was everywhere. The South Hills group had carried a Steelers pennant to help them find each other in crowds where they could easily become separated.

But all week they had seen thousands of people from lands as diverse as Tahiti and Sweden proudly displaying their national colors. They had spotted a few American groups also flying large flags, with no apparent ill effects.

In a gift shop that carried flags from many nations, chaperone Zack Rosser, 22, purchased a large flag on a long pole to carry before them. And Lauren Witter, 17, of Dormont, bought an even larger flag that she literally wrapped herself in.

Youth group leader Jessica Fabus, 22, decided to accept the flag because they needed a larger banner as a sign to follow in today's hike. And she had also decided they were not ashamed to be American.

"We realized that the world problems don't matter here. We're all here because of what we have in common. You should show your colors and be happy to meet everyone, no matter where they're from," she said.

They made their way through downtown Cologne and toured its magnificent gothic cathedral, which in World War II survived the bombing that reduced Cologne to rubble. It was a quick once-over in the crowded cathedral, but they gazed at the vivid stained-glass windows, saw the golden shrine where the bones of the three kings are said to be entombed, and were rewarded at the end with a virtuoso burst of joyous music from the immense pipe organ.

Across from the entrance, they saw the towering mosaic of the late Pope John Paul II that World Youth Day organizers commissioned after his death in April. With sponsorship from Fujifilm, they asked Catholics worldwide to e-mail photos of themselves to a Web site and then the mosaic was created from them. The South Hills group -- just one contingent among 700 people from Western Pennsylvania who are attending the summit -- also visited the Dominican church of St. Mary of the Assumption, where they visited the crypt of St. Albert the Great, the man who taught St. Thomas Aquinas.

More than 20,000 official volunteers have helped with food, lodging, retrieving lost belongings and a host of other urgent needs, and citizens have been generous with directions for the lost.

"You have to give them a lot of credit, because it's been crazy here. We came into their life, disrupted everything. But so many of them volunteered to help us," said Katie Pollice, 17, a senior at Mt. Lebanon High School.