Under attack,Pope says faith will give courage to fight

The pontiff said faith in God helps lead one towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion. He also spoke of how man can sometimes fall to the lowest,vulgar levels and sink into the swamp of sin and dishonesty.

One prayer read at the Mass asked God to help the young and those who work to educate and protect them,which Vatican Radio said was intended to sum up the feelings of the Church at this difficult time when it confronts the plague of paedophilia.

Since the scandal arose the Vatican has gone on the defensive,attacking the media for what it called an attempt to smear Pope Benedict and his advisers. But on Saturday,the Vaticans chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi acknowledged that the Churchs response to cases of sexual abuse by priests is crucial to its credibility and it must make amends.

The Vatican had denied a cover-up in the abuse of 200 deaf boys in the US by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from the 1950s to the 1960s,after the New York Times said he was not defrocked despite warnings sent to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,then the Churchs top doctrinal official,now Pope Benedict. The other epicentre of the scandal is Ireland,where two bishops have already resigned over their handling of abuse cases years ago.