Pope Benedict XVI met victims of sexual abuse by American clergy yesterday in the most dramatic signal yet of his efforts to atone for the scandal that has inflicted heavy damage on the Catholic Church in the United States.

The meeting took place in the chapel of the Vatican mission in Washington and came as he continued to place the issue of priestly abuse of minors over the past 30 years and the Church’s slow response to it at the forefront of his first visit to the US.

A Vatican spokesman said that the pontiff spent time with a group of victims. “They prayed with the Holy Father, who afterward listened to their personal accounts and offered them words of encouragement and hope,” he said.

“His Holiness assured them of his prayers for their intentions, for their families and for all victims of sexual abuse.”

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Chief Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said there was a lot of emotion in the room and some victims cried. Each one then spoke personally with the Pope.

Accompanying the Pope in the meeting was Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston. The Boston Archdiocese was the scene of some of the worst cases of abuse. Cardinal Bernard Law, Cardinal O’Malley’s predecessor, was forced to resign in 2002 after strong criticism that he had allowed priests who had been known sexual abusers to remain in pastoral duties in the diocese.

Earlier the Pope used the occasion of a vast outdoor Mass in Washington’s new baseball stadium to express once again his shame at the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the US. Celebrating Mass with 215 bishops for a congregation of more than 46,000 at Nationals Park, in view of the Capitol building, the Pope delivered a homily that dwelt at length on the sexual abuse scandal.

“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the Pope said. “Nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the Church.”

It was the third time in as many days on his first visit to the US that the Pope had condemned the actions of priests who abused youngsters over a period of decades, and it was the first time that he has expressed regret to a congregation of lay Catholics.

The scandal, which became public in 2002, has damaged the reputation of the Church and cost it more than $1 billion (£500 million) in legal settlements with victims of abuse.

Much of the leadership of the Church either ignored or failed to deal adequately with allegations of abuse over a period of years. A number of priests who were accused of abuse were removed from one parish or school only to be placed in another where they repeated their crimes. Several are now serving prison sentences.

The Pope asked the congregation to help victims of abuse and to support the many innocent priests whose reputations and trust had been damaged by the scandal.

“Today I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt. Also, I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do,” he said.

The repeated emphasis on the abuse scandal has surprised some Catholic observers, who expected the Pope to acknowledge the problems but not necessarily to demonstrate such penitence on behalf of the whole Church.

Benedict XVI’s contrition has been matched by a strong insistence from the Vatican that the lingering problem of sexual abuse should be eradicated. When he flew to the US on Tuesday, the Pope said that the Church would never tolerate paedophiles in the priesthood.

The theme of the visit is “Christ Our Hope” and the homily by the Pope yesterday also emphasised that message. He praised America as “a people of hope” but noted that there had been times in its history when not all of its inhabitants — especially Native Americans and slaves — had shared in the possibilities of hope.

“By your prayers, by the witness of your faith, by the fruitfulness of your charity, may you point the way towards that vast horizon of hope which God is even now opening up to his Church, and indeed to all humanity: the vision of a world reconciled and renewed in Christ Jesus, our Saviour,” he concluded.

The Mass, which converted the stadium into a vast, open-air cathedral, was the focal point of the third day of the visit.

The Pope arrives in New York today, where he is to deliver an address to the United Nations. The speech is expected to call for a reform of the organisation and mission of the UN to place it at the centre of global diplomacy. On Sunday he will visit Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Centre destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and he will meet some of the families of victims. He will also celebrate an open-air Mass at Yankee Stadium.

Stadium for the faithful

— 41,888 seats at the Nationals stadium

— 14,000 square metres of grey tartan covering laid to protect the playing field

— 300 deacons administered Communion

— 4 choirs sang in 12 languages

— 67m Catholics in the US

— 1.5 miles of the adjacent Anacostia River closed until Mass concluded

Source: washington.nationals.mlb.com; agencies; CNN