Washington, USA - Songs and prayers of the faithful mixed with shouts of "Antichrist!" on Wednesday as Pope Benedict's motorcade crawled through the streets of Washington.
Several thousand Roman Catholics from across the United States, dancing and shaking tambourines, waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the pope as he left the White House after meeting with President George W. Bush.
"It was in my heart so strong to see the pope, to try to get a blessing," said Carolyn Ehli of Moore, Oklahoma, who clutched a large portrait of the Virgin Mary as she maneuvered her wheelchair to a better viewing spot.
Not everyone came to welcome the pontiff. Roving bullhorn-toting Protestant fundamentalists warned Catholics would end up in hell, while others carried signs that accused the Church of harboring pedophiles.
Ontario native Axel Poessy said Bush should arrest Benedict for child abuse, not welcome him to the White House. She said priests' vows of celibacy led them to prey on children.
"If you abstain from having sex, you're activating your body to want it more," Poessy said.
As Bush and the pope met at the White House, 200 protesters demonstrated nearby over the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Church, of which the pope said he was "deeply ashamed."
They held up banners reading "Catholic priests are pedophiles" and "100,000 sexually abused kids in the U.S."
Ray McIntire, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, called the pope "the Antichrist" as he roved with a group of burly men carrying banners that equated the Catholic Church with Satan. "It's a fake religion. I believe they worship idols," he said. "Every one of these people here to worship the pope today is lost."
The warnings from McIntire's group were frequently drowned out by exuberant singing and drumming by the heavily Latino crowd.
Vendors did a brisk business in t-shirts and buttons emblazoned with the pope's image. "We donate some of it, but not all of it, to the Church. I got a lot of kids and grandkids, but the Church has got to get something," vendor Joe Rivera said.
Many waiting to see Benedict praised his reputation as an enforcer of Church doctrine, saying he served as a beacon in a culture of moral relativism.
Several said they had trouble reconciling Catholic beliefs -- opposing abortion, the death penalty and the Iraq War and fighting poverty -- with U.S. politics, where such positions mix policies from both the left and the right of the political spectrum.
"It makes it hard for Catholics to vote sometimes," said Sister Maria Theotokos, a nun with the Servants of the Lord order in Washington.
Maura Doman of Virginia said she was "reluctantly" supporting Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race: "There's so many things you care about that are not tied to one candidate. It's disheartening."
Washington resident Art Laffin said he hoped Benedict would tell Bush to end the Iraq war, adding, "We believe that war is a sin, torture is a sin. We pray that the pope can convey this."