Pontiff Calls for Broad Remedies

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Pontiff Begins Historic U.S. Visit in the District

Pope Benedict XVI was greeted with pealing church bells, enthusiastic throngs and gorgeous spring weather during a historic journey across Washington that took him from the green expanse of the South Lawn of the White House to the stone steps of one of the city's most spectacular churches.

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Yesterday, many U.S. Catholics were hearing the pope speak in English for the first time. Despite the pontiff's strong Bavarian accent, some people were surprised by the softness of his voice and his gentle, even shy, demeanor, so at odds with his image as a fierce defender of Catholic orthodoxy.

Benedict's trip is the first visit by a pope to the United States since the sex-abuse scandal erupted six years ago in Boston, where a judge released documents from civil lawsuits showing that Cardinal Bernard F. Law and his subordinate bishops had knowingly shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish without notifying parishioners or even pastors.

Law resigned as Boston's archbishop in the scandal's wake but remains a cardinal, posted in Rome.

From Boston, the scandal quickly spread, sparking grand jury investigations and a cascade of lawsuits nationwide that have cost the Church about $2 billion and forced a handful of dioceses into bankruptcy. Experts said Benedict's comments yesterday, combined with his remarks on the flight to Washington when he said he was "deeply ashamed" of the scandal, are his sharpest as pope on the issue. On Tuesday, he criticized priests who "betrayed . . . their mission" and vowed to exclude pedophiles from the ministry.

The pope spoke yesterday on the second day of a six-day day visit to the United States, which culminates locally today with a Mass at Nationals Park and an address to Catholic college presidents at Catholic University.

Yesterday, his official day began at the White House with a spectacular welcome indicative of Bush's deep personal attachment. The president considers Benedict a force against what both view as modern-day moral relativism.

About 13,500 guests -- including administration officials and members of Congress, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, priests and workers in Catholic social service organizations -- crowded the South Lawn. It was the first papal visit to the White House in 29 years.

"Here in America," Bush told the pope, "you'll find a nation that welcomes the role of faith in the public square."

The president and the pope steered clear in public of controversial political topics, focusing instead on the role of religion and morality in public life.

In the one gentle exception, the pope offered support for strengthening the United Nations, an institution that has often frustrated Bush, while making clear his preference for negotiations to solve disputes.

Noting the United States' generous role in offering relief to victims of natural catastrophes, Benedict said, "I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress."

The president emphasized that the United States does not shy from the proposition that religion should influence public affairs. Bush also paid tribute to Benedict's rejection of a "dictatorship of relativism," saying, "In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred and . . . each of us is loved."