BANGOR – Young Catholics from Maine got their first glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday when the pontiff traveled through the packed streets of Cologne in the popemobile.

“It was amazing,” Molly Ryan, 17, of Hampden said in a telephone interview from Germany, where she is attending World Youth Day. “I’ve never had an experience like that before, ever. I never thought I’d be about 10 feet away from him.”

“It really made me feel close to God to be so close to a man that holy.”

Ryan and her mother, Lynn Ryan, along with more than a dozen other Catholics from Greater Bangor, arrived in Cologne on Tuesday.

The Ryans are two of the 75 pilgrims – 50 teenagers and 25 adults – from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland who are attending the event.

The Rev. Robert Vaillancourt, pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Hampden and St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Winterport, is the group’s spiritual leader. Bishop Richard J. Malone also is traveling with the group.

The Maine delegation decided to skip the pope’s arrival Thursday afternoon on a cruise ship that came up the Rhine. Thousands lined the banks of the river to greet the pope, who was elected in April to replace John Paul II.

After delivering his speech in five languages from the prow of the cruise ship, Benedict, under tight security, wound his way through the streets. Instead of standing on the windy riverbank, the Maine Catholics waited five hours in front of a cathedral to get their first glimpse of the new pope.

“I was breathless,” Lynn Ryan said. “It was so awesome. It was incredible. It couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. People all around me were weeping. I was very moved, very moved.”

On Wednesday, the group attended Mass at a stadium with 10,000 other English-speaking pilgrims, Mark Hagar, 17, of Hampden said Thursday. He was impressed at the way the priests, including Vaillancourt, were able to efficiently dispense the host to so many people.

“I’m feeling closer to God,” he said of his experience in Cologne, “and learning a lot.”

Lynn Ryan said the teenagers from Maine were seeing firsthand that Catholicism has touched every corner of the world.

“They see people of all races singing the same songs, worshipping in the same manner,” she said. “They see the world connected by their faith.”

The group is scheduled today to attend Mass and visit cathedrals in the German city of 1 million residents.

Bishop Malone will celebrate Mass with the Maine pilgrims Saturday morning before they begin the more than 10-mile walk to the 640-acre Marienfeld site, a former open-pit coal mine, where they will spend the night.

World Youth Day will culminate on Sunday morning, when Benedict will celebrate an open-air Mass.

The group is expected to return home next week after spending three days in Paris.