Crowd Throngs First Papal Mass in Washington, AFP, April 17, 2008

Crowd Throngs First Papal Mass in Washington

AFP
April 17, 2008

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8Bb5wLWLz2aQh8ts9NfDMzIOy5w

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Tens of thousands flocked Thursday for the first Mass by Pope Benedict XVI on his US visit, hours after he chided Americans for a moral breakdown which he said fueled the church's child sex abuse scandal.

Gates opened at Washington's new sports stadium before dawn to allow an expected 48,000 people to trickle through stringent security measures and attend an open-air mass at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).

The pontiff received a rapturous White House welcome Wednesday and met privately with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, before addressing the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the US church in a speech to US Catholic bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI and US President George W. Bush listen to the US national anthem

In a speech delivered after evening prayer inside the largest Roman Catholic church in North America, the pontiff berated the bishops for their poor handling of a scandal surrounding sexual abuse of children in the church.

But he urged efforts "to address the sin of abuse within the wider context of sexual mores" as well as a reassessment of "the values underpinning society."

"What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?" the pontiff said on the first full day of his US visit.

"Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."

Describing clerics who sexually abuse children as "gravely immoral," the octogenarian pope warned that the scourge of pedophilia "is found not only in your dioceses but in every sector of society."

"It calls for a determined, collective response," he said, but did not outline any firm action that the Vatican intended to take to purge the church of pedophile priests.

The US Catholic church plunged into its worst crisis in 200 years in 2002 when the archbishop of Boston confessed he had protected a priest who had sexually abused young members of his church -- opening a floodgate of thousands of similar abuse cases around the country dating back decades.

The pontiff has berated US bishops for their poor handling the church's sex abuse scandal

Benedict angered victim support groups by praising the bishops' efforts to heal the wounds from the scandal.

"Five years ago, US bishops begrudgingly adopted some minimal promises on paper. There's no evidence to suggest they've had any real impact," Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told AFP.

"The pope continues to stand behind his men -- the bishops who conceal clergy sex crimes," said another SNAP member, Joelle Casteix.

"What the pope should be doing is assuring Catholics worldwide that any bishop who shields a predator will lose his job and the priests will be swiftly defrocked," she said.

SNAP planned to protest Thursday by handing out pamphlets as mass-goers leave metro train stations.

They will be asked to "demand action, not just words and gestures, from top church officials (especially concrete steps that will reduce child molestation and cover ups in the future)," the group said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, on the first papal visit to the White House in three decades, the Roman Catholic pontiff urged Bush to prefer diplomacy to war as a way of resolving conflicts.

Pope Benedict XVI pays a visit to the United States. FLASH GRAPHIC

But aside from mentioning the plight of Iraqi Christians, he skirted mention of the Iraq war, on which the Bush administration and Vatican do not see eye to eye.

Benedict and Bush expressed concern for Christians in war-torn Iraq, agreed on the need to create a Palestinian state, and said Lebanon must be free of undue foreign influence, according to a joint statement.

The pope urged the United States to treat immigrants humanely, and called on Americans to spurn materialism and shun secularism.

On the second day of his US trip -- his 81st birthday -- the pope drew raves more befitting a rock star than the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Under a cloudless sky, Bush welcomed Benedict with a 21-gun salute, a famed soprano singing a soaring "Lord's Prayer," and an earnest "peace be with you."

Crowds cheer as the Popemobile arrives at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Some 13,500 people packed the mansion's South Lawn waving little Vatican and US flags, as cries of "viva il Papa!" (long live the pope) mingled with the two national anthems and two choruses of "happy birthday" for the pontiff.

Thursday, after saying mass at Nationals' Stadium, Benedict plans to meet with Jewish representatives after an inter-faith gathering at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.

That, and a planned stop at a New York synagogue, appear aimed at quelling Jewish unhappiness over the revival for the Latin Rite mass of the 16th century "Prayer for Jews" in which Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews.