Just after 8:30 this morning, I was shivering in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue while listening to Peter Isely, who serves on the national board of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. He (the bald-headed man in the photo) was handing out lists of what the American Catholic Church should do next after getting its knuckles rapped by Pope Benedict for the past six days over sex abuse crisis.

"The disciplinary measures against those who covered up those crimes have not been put in place," he told me. "We would like to see a national registry naming all the sexually offending priests and what we're doing with them and what neighborhood we are settling them in." Some archdioceses (such as Baltimore) have published the names of such priests. Others, such as Washington, have not.

I told him of my interview with Archbishop Wuerl Sunday night (see previous blog entry) where he thought everything that needed to be done to contain priestly sex abuse had basically been done.

"That is the worst thing he could have possibly said," Isely replied. "He should have said, 'We will hold ourselves as bishops accountable to correct the failures the pope talked about.' ''

Plus, he added, what about abusive priests around the world, Sure, some 5,180 U.S. clergy - about 4% of all American clergy - have been found guilty. If you extrapolate that percentage to include all the world's priests, that would be about 21,000 clergy, he said. I have not done the math, so am taking his word on this. But are their 21,000 clergy worldwide identified as predators? Nope.

SNAP also wants the pope to sanction, publicly reprimand and discipline bishops who have transferred known sex offenders.

There's a lot more. For those of you local readers interested in this topic, there will be a movie, "Vows of Silence," about the Marciel Maciel sex abuse case involving the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Georgetown University, 111 St. Mary's Hall on Reservoir Road near the GU hospital. See www.vowsofsilencefilm.com for more info.

You'll be hearing a lot more on this topic, believe me.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

One man who got to be with the pope almost continuously during Benedict's visit was Washington's Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who had the amazing experience of riding in the popemobile not once but several times. What was all that close contact like? What most impressed the archbishop?

I got him in his home office Sunday night, puzzling over how to send thank-you notes to some 2,000 people involved in the Washington portion of the papal trip.

On the pope’s manner: "I think it was the ease with which the pope connected with people and how they connected with him. From the moment he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, he had this warm, open smile. He seemed to be embraced by everyone everywhere he went. He had some quality allowing him to touch peoples' hearts."

"On early Wednesday morning, I went down to join the motorcade group at the hotel. And a cleaning lady told me, 'I am going to be at the Mass. I saw the pope on television and he loves us.'

"Now, I was just stunned by the sincerity and conviction with which she said that. That was the reaction everywhere he went. The same with students at Catholic University, the people who lined the streets, the throngs of people along Pennsylvania Avenue. I could see people crying as he went by. That said to me he had a way of touching peoples' hearts.

"He exuded this sense of calm and joy. He walked into the room and there was this sense of peace."

"[In the popemobile] We were facing him so you could see his face. Just to see it lit up with joy – this smile that never left his face. He was waving. I was transfixed by what was clearly… he exuded a love. It was clear he loved the people he was seeing."

On his conversations with the pope:

"He mentioned how the firm faith people had. He said that a number of times, as he was experiencing that with so much of us. He commented on the Mass at Nationals stadium that it was a true prayer service. Everybody there seemed to have entered into the Mass. It was a Mass – not a show."

I asked him whether he knew about the five sex abuse victims before they met with the pope Thursday afternoon.

"Yes, but it wasn’t to be public information," he said. "He did it with great grace."

Archbishop Wuerl added he was not at the papal nunciature when the five victims were there. I asked him if this would change the way sex abuse complaints were handled among U.S. bishops. He thought not.

"We already have among the bishops very strong policies – monitoring systems," he said. "The priests who have been accused have been removed. There are intensive child protection programs in dioceses. What we were talking about is what happened in the past. The pope was all talking about what happened in past."

I asked him what it was like being at the pope's noon birthday party last Wednesday at the papal nunciature. Archbishop Wuerl was one of the few non-cardinals present at the gathering. The pope, he said, had a cake but it only had one candle.

"He clearly was trying to be a part of what was going on. We were celebrating his birthday our style. It was a wonderful experience being that close to the pope in diverse situations."

What was the height of the visit for him?

"The Mass was my happiest moment; being able to present to the pope some 47,000 people. The way they all cheered and waved was such a beautiful moment – a tribute of their appreciation and his clear pastoral care of them. It was clear he connected with them and they with him."

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

I have rarely heard a voice much like that one; soaring into the early evening air; full-throated, beautiful as stars at midnight. American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson's warm-up act before Pope Benedict arrived at today's (Saturday) youth rally in Yonkers was nothing to write home about but her closing act: Whoa.

Benedict was already running a half hour late, due to his speech continually being interrupted with cheers and shouts of "Benedetto!" The crowd filling what looked like a football field adjacent to St. Joseph's Seminary had sat in the sun all afternoon, so they wanted the pope to stick around as long as possible to make up for it. Black-clad seminarians were packed up against the stage, mosh-pit style while those of us in the press pen were reduced to sitting in the dirt on a hill overlooking the main stage, trying to keep dust off our computer screens.

I think John Paul II was used to rock-star receptions but this was all new to Benedict. But he was really warming up to the crowd and twice walked out on walkways extending into the crowd to shake hands. His speech was solid and interesting. Then a parade of outstanding local Catholic youth were marched past him for a personal greeting.

By 7 p.m., it was almost over. Then Kelly Clarkson, 25, who had changed out of a black dress from her previous act into a demure blue frock, began to belt out the well-known words of "Ave Maria." She was so magnificent, that afterwards the crowd roared and even Benedict stood to greet here. Miss Clarkson, by the way, attends a Baptist church.

Then Benedict climbed into his popemobile and disappeared behind the stage. I then noticed tons of police lining up on a small road right in front of the press pen. Right behind us stood a group of nuns from the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville. Then, the popemobile hove into view, barely 15 feet from me and maybe 25 feet from the nuns. It was so dear to watch their amazed faces.

"I can't believe it. He was right there," Sister Mary Angela, the novice mistress, told me afterwards.

"You know," I overheard a broadcaster saying nearby, "his reception has gotten warmer as people have gotten to know him better."

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

In yesterday's post, I said Sen. Ted Kennedy did not receive Holy Communion at the Nationals Mass. However, my source at Christendom College got the following e-mail soon after I filed the post. It said:

"Two of my sons and I attended the Papal Mass yesterday. We were seated in section 216, directly above the section in which Ted Kennedy was seated. Several minutes prior to the general distribution of communion a priest walked down to Ted Kennedy and gave him communion. There was some discussion amongst we in our section about the inappropriateness of his reception of the Host. Be certain, he remained seated not out of some self-enforced respect for the sacrament, but rather out of respect for his girth and mobility."

Here's the question of the day: Who was the priest? If you know, let us know!

As I write, a gorgeous Mass is going on now at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Folks were camped out for hours on the Manhattan sidewalks to get a glimpse of the pontiff as he was driven to its Gothic precincts at 9:15 a.m. I've never seen so many religious habits in my life - except around St. Peter's Square. Mayor Michael Bloomberg put in a brief appearance to call it a "historic day for New York."

After this, the pope rides his popemobile up Fifth Avenue - without ticker tape, I am guessing - then heads off to Yonkers where he will first speak to about 50 disabled children, then about 20,000 young people.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

I'm in the freezing press room at the Sheraton New York, waiting for Benedict to appear at Park East Synagogue. I thought I'd run a photo from yesterday's Nationals Stadium Mass furnished by Tom McFadden, director of admissions at Christendom College in Front Royal. He trained his camera on three prominent Catholic Democrats: Sens. John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd, who had excellent seats right on the playing field. All are known as "pro-choice" Dems.

He was curious as to whom would receive Communion and who would not, as there is much debate among Catholics as to whether pro-choice politicians should receive the Eucharist at all. Some say canon law forbids them to receive it and all that local bishops need do is enforce it.

Well, there was no enforcing yesterday. You can see Kerry taking Communion in the photo. So did Dodd. But Kennedy did not. Interesting, no?

After the service, the transportation company responsible for ferrying some 20,000-30,000 attendees back to their buses at JFK stadium kept people waiting at least 2 1/2 hours, I was told by Jim Allison, a parishioner at St. Clare's in Gainesville. Finally, he said, a DC police officer took pity on the waiting multitudes and requisitioned some Metro buses to take them back. There were only 160 shuttle buses, he said, although at least 250 were needed to help the folks who lived too far out to take advantage of Metro.

The public aren't the only folks being kept waiting during the B-16 Tour. Those of us reporting on this adventure have to report to duty six hours or more before the event. For instance, for a 4:30 p.m. Saturday event at St. Joseph's seminary in Yonkers, I have to present myself at the media center at 10 a.m. Once we are put in place — often in a media bubble with no access to either the pope or the people he has come to see, we just sit there. Being that all the media are thoroughly vetted by the Secret Service beforehand, we wonder why we have to 1. show up so early at the venues and 2. be x-rayed at all, especially the reporters who, unlike the photographers, don't get withing 50 feet of the pope. Back in the good old days of John Paul's 1987 tour, we sat within 20 feet of the stage and had no grinding security sweeps to endure.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

I got the call at 3 p.m. as I was returning home from the Mass. I had been up since 5 a.m. covering that and was beat. On the phone was someone from SNAP, the ad hoc group representing many of the people sexually abused by priests. The SNAP person was saying he was getting all sorts of calls from foreign journalists about the pope meeting with victims of sex abuse today at the papal nunciature on Massachusetts Avenue.

Having tried to drive up to the nunciature Tuesday night, I knew what a traffic mess the place was and how impossible it would be to park anywhere near it, much less glimpse several folks being hustled through the back door as it were. I told him there had been rumors all week the pope might meet with victims but we still didn't know where and when.

Now read the official Vatican release:

Press release of the Holy See Press Office on the meeting of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, with a group of sexually abused victims by members of the Clergy

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

By the time I got wind of this, it was well past 5. Apparently word was whipping through the media center downtown; problem is, I was no longer there. Two other reporters from my paper were in the area, but they were in media lock-downs waiting to report on various events the pope was attending in the evening. Word was the group members had talked with NPR. Later I found out they were on CNN.

Rocco Palmo, the meister-writer of the whispers-in-the-loggia blog, said the meeting *had* to occur in Washington, as the nunciature is literally the pope's house in a way that his lodgings in New York will not be. So, if he was going to host a meeting, it needed to be while he was still in DC. And today was his last day here.

I called around some Boston contacts and got enough details to update Friday's front-page story. Apparently one member of the group, Bernie McDaid, is an activist on behalf of folks who have been abused by priests. He had gone to Rome in 2003 to seek a meeting with the pope and ended up instead with a high church official who remembered his name. So when it came to selecting who should meet with the pontiff, his name came up. It's a bit muddy right now figuring out if the Vatican chose all these guys or if Cardinal O'Malley had some sort of input. One thing some of the group members had in common was they had been abused by the same priest: one Joe Birmingham.

I talked with Father Bob Hoatson, a priest who was himself abused in the 1970s, who will be demonstrating in New York during the papal visit on behalf of sex abuse victims.

"The meeting should have been part of the pope's public itinerary," he said, "but instead it was done in secrecy. SNAP had already sent him a letter asking for a meeting but they were denied."

Robert Costello, a Boston activist, felt the same way.

"He met with five people for a half hour; that is 6 1/2 minutes per person," he said. "It is more of the same: secret meetings in secret rooms planned by the church. The abuse happened behind closed doors too."

Joe Cultrera, a Boston filmmaker whose film, "The Hand of God," is about the abuse suffered by his brother, Paul, at the hands of Fr. Birmingham, said there was no way the pope could visit America and not deal with the issue.

"For him to make a big point now on meeting victims; that should have been done 10 years ago," he said. "If he wants to do something now, he should fire Cardinal Law," the retired Boston prelate forced out of his job because of the high amount of abuse cases in his archdiocese. The cardinal now lives in relative comfort in Rome.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

Benedict XVI just left the field — what a splendid event this was — great music, faultless presentation. Fabulous, cool weather and sunny skies didn't hurt, either.

And in the midst of a baseball field at that. The pitcher's mound was demurely enclosed by a white fence; home plate was covered by the archdiocesan shield.

The one blot: Coffee was either not ready at the concession stands or they ran out early.

I sidled up to a concession stand, where I met one Michael Anthony White, 56, of St. Catherine Laboure parish in Wheaton, who like dozens of others, was scooping up souvenirs: rosaries, T-shirts, and the like.

"I just want to capture the moment," he said. "I can't believe I am here."

A few mysteries remain: Still little word on the identities of the 50 people who personally got to take Communion from the pope. I have been asking the archdiocesan spokeswoman this question for many days — finally, after the Mass, I got her to admit the lucky ones included not a few archdiocesan staff, such as chancellor Jane Belford and her husband Kevin, plus "some students." Well, if any of you recognized others, please send us their names since it appears the archdiocese may take awhile to supply us a full list.

And even though Benedict is not the showman John Paul II was, he had no difficulty engaging the crowds with his obvious enjoyment with being here. Who wouldn't be in a stadium with the Capitol as your backdrop?

Yours truly was up at 5 to cover this but I had two interns: Kristi Moore and Hsin-yin Lee, who were at the stadium even earlier — in fact; Hsin-yin camped out at the press center at the Westin all night to catch the 4:30 a.m. press bus to the stadium.

Here are some of the quotes they got from the worshippers:

Sister Marie de Prouille, a nun from the Servants of the Lord order in the District, who was helping out in the confession tent where 65 priests were absolving people of their sins.

"It's a real blessing for us he is here," she said, "and it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to be here."

The Hooper family from Benedict, Md., arrived at 5:30 a.m. Like many, they got in by winning a parish lottery.

"This is the closest you can get to God," said the dad, Gary Hooper, 41.

"Just breathing the same air as the pope is good enough for me. I don't even have to see him or touch him," said Agnes Ngami, 50, who came with her two daughters, Margaret, 17, and Melanie, 14, from Brandywine, Md.

I wanted to experience the aura of the Holy Father," said Larry Horner, who came from Tracy's Landing, Md.

Bert and Katie Drummond, a couple from Silver Spring, got tickets at the last minute from his employer at Catholic University's theological school.

"It was meant to be and so it happened," he said. He got a seat on the field.

"I have been bragging non-stop," said Navy Maj. William Schouviller, 43, from St. Leo the Great parish in Fairfax. Only 99 parishioners got to go and he was one.

"This is very spiritual and very moving," said Francis Stevens of Petersburg, Va. "Pope Benedict is a great leader, and he's here to tell his flock to follow the teachings of Christ. He is our own messenger."

Five school girls from Academy of Holy Cross in the Washington archdiocese arrived dressed in full school uniforms with knee-length baby blue skirts and navy blue vests. Out of 150 students, they alone got to attend.

"A lot of us were just like, 'Oh My God! We're going to see the pope!" said Mary Rajk, 14.

"I was really bummed because my mom and brother had tickets, so when I found out, I was really happy," said Danielle Tafuri, 14. "I really want a blessing from the pope!"

A lot of non-locals got there too, including Marianne Doughney from Jupiter, Fla., in one of 150 people from the Diocese of Palm Beach who got tickets. She was especially happy to be at a Mass. “That's what it is all about," she said. "It's the Year of the Eucharist."

Monsignor Michael Schmied from St. Augustine Catholic Church in Richmond, Va., said of the pope, "I hope he will bring a face of the Catholic Church that is intelligent, respectful, communicative and compassionate . "We need this type of leadership."

Father William Byrne from St. Peters Church on Capitol Hill had been at several papal Masses before attending yesterday's event.

"'John Paul II was very gifted with visual images, and I think Benedict has the gift of words," he said. "You have to listen very carefully. His writings are profound and must be read in their totality."

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

During his homily, the pope asked his flock to "love your priests," and create an environment of forgiveness and vigilance to ensure Catholic children are raised in a safe setting.

Yesterday he discussed the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church in America. The pope earlier apologized for the scandal.

"These efforts to protect children must continue," Pope Benedict said. "Today I encourage each of you to foster healing and reconciliation."

The pope also discussed what he called "a disturbing breakdown in the foundations of society" while also praising globalization and the increasing interdependence of humanity.

"Who can deny that the present moment is a crossroads, not only for the Church in America, but also for society as a whole?" Pope Benedict asked. "It is a time of great progress."

The pope decried a "weakening of the moral sense," and a "forgetfulness of Christ and God."

— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times

Today's Mass is featuring women and racial minorities, highlighting the Catholic Church's broad appeal.

The pope just presided over the responsorial psalm, Psalm 104, which calls on God to "renew the face of the earth." It was read by a black woman.

A black woman also just read from Romans 8:22-27, which discusses the "groanings" of humanity.

A Hispanic priest from Maryland just read about the resurrection in a passage from John 20:19-23 and brought the Bible to the pope to kiss.

Mezzo soprano Denyce Graves sang the initial call to worship.

— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times

Pope Benedict XVI just began celebrating Mass at Nationals Park. His assistant removed his golden mitre, and the pope put on his spectacles and began his introduction.

"I'm happy to be with you all in Washington, the District of Columbia," the pope told the packed crowd in the stadium. "May our time together help us to renew the hope and love of our lord Jesus Christ."

CNN just said the pope plans to speak in Spanish to directly address the United States' Latino community. Right now a female reader just began reciting Acts: 2:1-11.

— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times