Pope John Paul urged American bishops Thursday to provide more guidance to priests in the United States to prevent a repeat of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church there.
The Pope also called on U.S. bishops to work for greater inter-religious dialogue and avoid misunderstandings among faiths after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In an address to bishops from New England, where the sex scandal was centered, he asked them to "make every effort to be present as a father and a brother" to the priests and "encourage them in fidelity to their noble vocation as men completely consecrated to the service of the Lord and his Church."
The crisis erupted in 2002, when it was discovered that many U.S. bishops had simply moved priests known to have sexually abused minors to a new location instead of defrocking them or reporting them to the authorities.
A study released earlier this year said more than 10,600 children had reported being molested by U.S. priests since 1950.
The U.S. church has paid nearly $700 million in damages to abuse victims, including some $85 million paid out by the Archdiocese of Boston, where the scandal first hit the headlines.
The Pope, who received the bishops at his Castelgandolfo summer residence, south of Rome, repeated the Vatican's position that only a small minority of priests had been involved and that the vast majority observed their vows of celibacy.
Boston's former archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, who was accused of turning a blind eye to the abuse, resigned in disgrace in December 2002 after dozens of his own priests called on him to step down.
The Vatican came under fire from some Catholics last month when Law was given a new post as the head of a basilica in Rome.
Boston's new archbishop, Sean Patrick O'Malley, told the Pope the American Church was still struggling with the effects of the scandal.
"Our recent history is one of great pain because of the tragedy of clerical sexual abuse with all its devastating consequences," O'Malley said.
"Oftentimes the victims and their families were among the most committed to the life of the Church and so the abuse has been experienced as the most serious betrayal," O'Malley said.
It was the second time in four months the Pope has spoken to visiting U.S. bishops about the effects of the scandal.
He told them in May they must clean up the seminaries so that future priests would learn to live by the rules.
A report by researchers at New York's John Jay College in February said the scandal involved at least 4 percent of U.S. Roman Catholic clergy.
It said most victims were male and the largest single age group was 11 to 14. Abuses ranged from touching to oral sex and intercourse.