WASHINGTON: Pope Benedict XVI urged US Catholics to renew their faith and condemned the “tragic” sexual abuse of children by priests as he celebrated Mass before tens of thousands at a baseball stadium.

The pontiff was greeted by an enthusiastic roar from the crowd of 48,000 and joyous singing by four choirs led by celebrated tenor Placido Domingo, as he arrived at the new Washington Nationals ballpark in his “pope-mobile.” The faithful began arriving before dawn at the gates of the stadium, Washington’s latest shrine to baseball opened last month which was transformed into a cathedral for the pope’s first public Mass of his six-day US visit.

In his homily, Benedict said Catholics in the United States and around the world had to reinforce their own faith and seek new converts in responding to “signs of alienation, anger and polarization” in society at large.

“The challenges confronting us require a comprehensive and sound instruction in the truths of the faith,” he said, decrying rising violence, looser morals, “and a growing forgetfulness of God.” The pope’s message of universal faith was underlined by the presence at the Mass of a Sikh man in a turban, who sat in front of a group of Jewish men wearing skull-caps.

Opening the celebration, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl reflected on America’s rich racial and religious diversity. “All of us at the Mass reflect the breadth of this family,” he said.—AFP