Benedict shores up U.S. church in visit

Pope Benedict XVI ended his first U.S. pilgrimage Sunday, completing a mission aimed at renovating and rebuilding the troubled Roman Catholic Church in the United States with moving appearances at two iconic sites, the crater where the World Trade Center once stood and Yankee Stadium.

By many accounts he succeeded -- by tackling consistently and directly the pedophilia crisis that has undermined the church in America, and by casting commitment to Catholic life in a vividly positive light rather than a recriminatory litany of prohibitions.

He lauded the integration of immigrants, spoke forcefully in defense of human rights and made a plea for Catholic unity to overcome painful differences.

“Today’s celebration is more than an occasion of gratitude for graces received,” he said at the packed baseball stadium. “It is also a summons to move forward with firm resolve to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations.”

In the most solemn moment of the six-day tour, Benedict prayed Sunday at the site of the Sept. 11 attacks. He sprinkled holy water in each direction of the compass, blessing as hallowed ground the scarred land where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives.

Benedict walked down a concrete ramp to ground zero, subdued in chilled fog, still and quiet, save for a cellist from the New York Philharmonic who played mournful movements from Bach.

The pope knelt and prayed silently at a small reflecting pool symbolizing renewal, then read aloud a prayer for victims, survivors and “those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.”

“God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world,” he said. “God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events.”

Twenty-four people representing survivors, victims’ families, firefighters, police and paramedics attended the half-hour ceremony, ringing the pope as he prayed and then meeting him one by one.

With each person, Benedict spoke a few words and looked deeply into their eyes. Several kissed his ring. One woman wept, later giving long hugs to several of her fellow survivors.

Faith restored

Thomas Riches, a firefighter whose firefighting brother was among the first to respond on Sept. 11 and was killed, was among the people who attended the ceremony.

“We carried my brother out of there, so it was kind of hard to walk back down there,” Riches told a local television station. “But the pope being there made it worth it. . . . It was good to see him there.”

His father, Jim, added: “My faith was destroyed that day. We asked, ‘Where was God?’ on 9/11. He came back here today and restored our faith.”

“He put kind of closure to our sorrow,” Rose Mazza, whose daughter was killed in the attacks and who was among those greeted by the pope, told NY1 television station. “He recognized this is hallowed ground. He blessed it, and it was a good thing.”

Christy Ferer, whose husband, Neil Levin, was the executive director of New York’s Port Authority and was killed in the Sept. 11 attack, said, “It was a privilege that the pope chose to bless bedrock at ground zero and took the time to hear individual stories of victims, first responders and survivors.

“I thanked him for his decision to visit ground zero and bless the ground and reach out to family members,” she said. “I told him it was Passover and that the timing of his visit was all the more meaningful.”

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who attended along with the governors of New York and New Jersey, said he was not disturbed that the pope, implicitly, prayed also for terrorists.

“He’s always been a man of peace,” Bloomberg said as he walked away from the crater. “He believes we can live together and he’s praying for everyone.”

Cheering reception

The sobriety of the ground zero ceremony gave way later Sunday to the kind of cheering reception that Benedict has repeatedly encountered.

More than 56,000 faithful from all over the country filled the bleachers at Yankee Stadium as Benedict led a Mass and called on his followers to become “living stones in that spiritual temple” that is the Catholic Church.

From an altar near second base, the pope used his homily as something of a coda for his U.S. mission, sounding again the themes of renewal in Christ, the importance of the church and the need for unity. He made the most explicit statement against abortion that he offered during this trip, saying that the “unborn child in the mother’s womb” was also deserving of respect and rights.

“ ‘Authority’ . . . ‘obedience.’ To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays,” the pope said. “True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve.”

He also reiterated the importance of transferring Christianity’s moral values to daily actions and to public debate.

Watching Benedict smile and wave to the crowd on the Jumbotron is something Sean McPherson, 24, of San Dimas, said he would never forget.

“He just looked so happy,” he said. “He had this big smile on his face on the big screen. He was connecting. It felt as though he was waving at me.”

Angelo and Cindy Giambrone of Fountain Valley attended with a group of about 40 from Orange County.

“His message really revolved around love and responsibility, especially for the frail and the unborn,” said Angelo Giambrone, 49, a pharmacist. “It was refreshing and in many ways brave, because of all the freedom we have in this country, but he was saying we have a responsibility to our faith and our baptism.”

The Giambrones, who stood after the Mass near the railing in left field as the popemobile passed about 15 feet away, said they were moved to see Benedict so close. “We were able to see his eyes as he left, and I felt he was looking right into my heart and I was looking into his,” Angelo Giambrone said. “It was just amazing.”

Later, Vice President Dick Cheney hosted an airport farewell event, with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton attending.

Personable pope

Benedict surprised a lot of hard-bitten New Yorkers and, during the first days of his visit, strait-laced Washingtonians. Many said he seemed warmer and more personable than they expected, given his reputation as a rigid theologian who enforced Catholic dogma for nearly a quarter-century as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

He acknowledged having faults and on several occasions worked the crowd like a politician, grabbing outstretched hands and kissing babies.

A primary goal of the trip was to give a boost to the Catholic Church in the U.S., which has grown thanks to mostly Latino immigrants who are devoted Catholics but has lost priests, has been forced to shut down parishes and is still reeling from the sexual abuse crisis that has cost more than $2 billion in legal settlements.

If he achieved that goal, part of his success rested in painting Catholic devotion in positive terms. By no means did he waver from his strict, traditional interpretation of church doctrine, but he also did not use this pilgrimage to scold famously wayward American Catholics nor to condemn their sins.

Instead, he praised the injection of religious faith into public life in the U.S. and urged young people to find freedom and truth through the Gospel.

“Sometimes we are looked upon as people who speak only of prohibitions,” he told seminarians and young Catholics on Saturday in New York. “Nothing could be further from the truth!”

Whether U.S. Catholics buy that over the long run remains to be seen.

Dealing with the scandal

Perhaps most important was Benedict’s handling of the sexual abuse crisis, for which he has won generally high marks. It was assumed before the trip that he would have to address the issue. But few would have predicted that he would raise it almost every day, including on the flight from Rome to Washington.

Ahead of the flight, the Vatican chose a journalist to ask a specific question about how Benedict expected to heal the wounds suffered by thousands of youths who were raped or molested by clergy members.

Once in the U.S., in different venues, he spoke to the public, to bishops and to the clergy about the abuse, the need to minister to the victims and to repair the damaged church. Finally, he met privately with five victims, an unprecedented gesture. Still, victims’ organizations await follow-up action and continue to hold responsible senior clergy for protecting the abusers.

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wilkinson@latimes.com

Times staff writers Maggie Farley in New York and Rebecca Trounson and Paloma Esquivel in Los Angeles contributed to this report.