POPE BENEDICT XVI has ended a groundbreaking visit to the United States, which was dominated by his frank discussion of clerical child abuse, by celebrating Mass for 60,000 people at New York's Yankee Stadium.
Earlier, the pope knelt and prayed at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, the site of the 9/11 attacks and offered private words of comfort to the families of some of those who died there.
"God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred," he said.
At a Mass in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral on Saturday, the pope returned to the child sex abuse scandal, which has driven six US dioceses into bankruptcy and shaken the faith of many Catholics. Last week, he became the first pontiff ever to meet victims of clerical sex abuse and he spoke about the issue at almost all his public appearances.
"This will be a time of purification for each and every particular church and religious community, and a time for healing," he said at St Patrick's. "I also encourage you to co-operate with your bishops, who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue."
Togo-born Henry Hattor flew to New York from Omaha, Nebraska to see the pope arriving at Yankee Stadium, although he did not have a ticket for the Mass itself. "As a Catholic, as a man of faith, I know he's the Vicar of Christ. Seeing the pope is like seeing Jesus," he said. "His message is a message of hope."