Pope celebrates open air Mass in heavily Catholic Malta for thousands of faithful

Pope leads open-air Mass in Malta for thousands

VALLETTA, Malta — Malta’s top archbishop said Sunday that the church must recognize “the failures and sins” of its members as he opened a papal Mass in Malta, a heavily Catholic nation rocked by the worldwide sex abuse scandal.

Church officials said up to 10,000 people attended the Mass and thousands more were expected to turn out along Pope Benedict XVI’s motorcade route before he returns to Rome in the evening.

Archbishop Paul Cremona opened the Mass at a granary near the sea, saying that “we cannot just cling to the model of the church to which we have been accustomed for decades.”

He did not directly mention the scandal but said the “church must be humble enough to recognize the failures and sins of its members.” Benedict listened, seated nearby on the altar.

Benedict made no direct reference to the scandals. He told Maltese to cling to their faith despite the temptations of modern society.

“Many voices try to persuade us to put aside our faith in God and his church,” he warned.

He also warned against believing that “today’s advanced technology can answer all our needs and save us from all the perils and dangers that best us,” he said. “But it is not so.”

Ten men who claimed they were abused by priests several decades ago want to meet with Benedict in Malta. But they told local newspapers Sunday they would go to Rome if Benedict did not have time to see them in Malta.

The overnight trip is the pope’s first foreign travels since the full force of the scandals have rocked the church became apparent and threatened to engulf his papacy.

Benedict has been accused by victims groups of being part of systematic practice of cover-up by church hierarchy for pedophile priests, in his earlier roles as an archbishop in Germany and later at the helm of the Vatican morals office. The groups are demanding he take responsibility for the Vatican as an institution.

The Maltese men who have spoken up say they were abused by four priests at a Catholic orphanage.