Pope candidly meets with clergy sexual abuse victims

WASHINGTON -- Pope Benedict XVI prayed with tearful victims of clergy sex abuse in a chapel Thursday, an extraordinary gesture from a pontiff who has made atoning for the great shame of the U.S. church the cornerstone of his first papal trip to America.

Benedict's third day in the U.S. began with a packed open-air Mass celebrated in 10 languages at a baseball stadium, and it included a speech to Roman Catholic college and university presidents.

But the real drama happened privately, in the chapel of the papal embassy between events.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with a group of five or six clergy sex abuse victims for about 25 minutes, offering them encouragement and hope. The group from O'Malley's archdiocese were all adults, men and women, who had been molested when they were minors. Each spoke privately with the pope.

"They prayed together. Also, each of them had their own individual time with the Holy Father," Lombardi said. "Some were in tears."

Bernie McDaid, one of the victims, said in an interview with CNN that he told the pope he was an altar boy when he was abused and "it wasn't just sexual abuse, it was spiritual abuse. And I want you to know that. And then I told him that he has a cancer growing in his ministry, and needs to do something about it. And I hope he hears me ... and he nodded."

McDaid and two other victims said in the interview that the meeting was candid and emotional.

Well over 4,000 priests have been accused of molesting minors in the U.S. since 1950. The church has paid out more than $2 billion, much of it in just the last six years, after the case of a serial molester in Boston gained national attention and inspired many victims to step forward. Six dioceses have been forced into bankruptcy because of abuse costs.

Expected to address the problem only once during his six-day trip -- at a Mass with priests in New York City on Saturday -- Benedict has instead returned to the issue repeatedly, beginning in a news conference on the flight from Rome to the U.S.

The session came just hours after the pope celebrated the first public Mass of his U.S. pilgrimage.

More than 45,000 people filled Nationals Park on a clear spring day as the pope led the service from an altar erected in centerfield.

In his homily, Benedict called the United States a land of opportunity and hope but decried that the nation's promise has been left unfulfilled for some. He said he detected anger and alienation, increasing violence and a "growing forgetfulness of God."

"Americans have always been a people of hope," the pontiff said. "Your ancestors came to this country with the experience of finding new freedom and opportunity.

"To be sure, this promise was not experienced by all the inhabitants of this land; one thinks of the injustices endured by the native American peoples and by those brought here forcibly from Africa as slaves."

Later, the pope told leaders of America's Roman Catholic colleges and universities that academic freedom has "great value" for the schools, but it does not justify promoting positions that violate the Catholic faith.

Also Thursday, the pope met with Jewish and Muslim leaders, along with leaders of other faiths, and affirmed the church's commitment to interreligious dialogue.