Pope Benedict, in his first gesture since a new wave of sexual abuse scandals swept over Roman Catholicism, promised this afternoon the Church will do "all in its power" to bring the guilty to justice and protect the young.
The Vatican issued a statement after the pope met privately with eight Maltese victims of sexual abuse in the Vatican's embassy on the second and last day of his trip to Malta.
"He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future," the statement said.
The statement was one of the clearest yet from the Vatican that it wanted local bishops to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting priests who abused children.
The Maltese abuse victims had asked for a meeting with the pope but the Vatican did not confirm it until after it was over.
"He was deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered," it said, adding he hoped their pain would heal.
A spokesman said the pope met with them as a group and then spoke to each individually before they prayed together.
"I lost my faith in the last 20 years," Lawrence Grech, a 37-year-old victim of sexual abuse, said after the meeting.
"I told him 'you can fill up the emptiness, fill up what the priests took from me when I was young.'"
"This experience is going to change my life. Now I can go to my daughter and say 'I believe,'" he said, breaking into tears.
The United States-based support group SNAP - Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests - said it hoped the Maltese victims "feel better since their pain has been validated.
"However, the pope's professions of 'sorrow' don't keep one child-molesting cleric away from kids, expose one corrupt bishop or make one child more secure. That is where the pope's focus should be," said National Outreach Director Barbara Dorris.
The pope's trip to Malta has been overshadowed by the global church sex-abuse crisis. Earlier, at an open-air Mass, he heard the island's leading bishop say the Catholic Church had to be humble enough to recognise its failures.
So far on this trip, Pope Benedict has made no direct reference in public to the worldwide crisis. Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him to Malta on Saturday, he said Roman Catholicism has been "wounded by our sins" but did not use the word "abuse".
Hundreds of cases of sexual and physical abuse of youths in recent decades by priests have come to light in Ireland, Europe and the United States as disclosures encourage long-silent victims to finally go public with their complaints.
Reuters