Pope Benedict XVI arrives for vespers at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with the bishops of the United States yesterday.

AP / J. Scott Applewhite

WASHINGTON — For the second time during his American journey, Pope Benedict XVI spoke yesterday of the shame of the sexual abuse of children by priests, telling the nation’s Catholic bishops that the scandal in their church was “sometimes very badly handled.”

“Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior,” the pope said at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Benedict’s remarks — five dense paragraphs near the close of a 20-paragraph address during a prayer service in the crypt of the domed shrine — were his toughest yet on the topic, although they fell short of what some victims wanted to hear about a crisis that has deeply wounded the church from New England to California.

The address sounded a grave note near the end of a day — Benedict’s 81st birthday — that had begun in pageantry and brilliant sunshine on the South Lawn of the White House, where President Bush and a record throng of 13,500 gave the pope an exuberant welcome.

The crowd was full of dignitaries — from First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a healthy contingent of the heavily-Catholic New England congressional delegation. Rep. James R. Langevin brought his mother, June. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy sat with his father, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The younger Kennedy reflected later that Benedict’s praise of religiously inspired public service in this country was an echo of President John F. Kennedy’s phrase: “Here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”

Between the lines of the pontiff’s praise of American generosity at the White House, Msgr. Paul Theroux, the vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Providence, heard what he thought might have been an admonition to broader and steadier service to the world.

“America has traditionally shown herself generous in meeting immediate human needs, fostering development and offering relief to the victims of natural catastrophes,” the pope said. “I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress.”

There was no mistaking the admonitory tone of Benedict’s counsel to the bishops later in the day, on “the subtle influence of secularism” in American culture, on indifference to poverty, on “the sharp decline of the family” — and on the “evil” of clergy sex abuse of children.

The pontiff counseled the bishops, “As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it occurs, you can be assured of the prayerful support of God’s people throughout the world.” He endorsed what he called the bishops’ priority of “showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.”

But Benedict said programs for healing the ills of clerical sexual abuse must be placed “in a wider context.” Children need a “healthy understanding of sexuality” and “should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today.”

The pope demanded: “What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through the media widely available today?”

FOR JAMES EGAN, the pope’s remarks about the shame of the actions of pedophile priests rang “very empty. Words are just words. It’s the actions that really matter. What actions has he taken?”

Egan, 37, of Burrillville, was one of five boys whom the Rev. Michael V. LaMountain admitted in 1999 to having abused years earlier. Egan, like dozens of other assumed victims, settled a lawsuit out of court with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. LaMountain received nine, 12-year suspended sentences.

Egan responded angrily to Benedict’s words. “He’s saying, ‘Yes, this is bad,’ but he’s still not apologizing,” said Egan. “He’s saying there was pain to the church!”

During an interview last night, Egan reacted to a text of Benedict’s speech, read to him over the telephone by a reporter.

To Benedict’s comment that American church leaders have acknowledged that the scandal “was sometimes very badly handled,” Egan retorted, with a bitter laugh, “Sometimes!”

Egan was asked what sort of response he would like from the pope. “A proper response. A proper gesture would be to open up all the facts, and not hiding behind their lawyers.” Noting that “young children are taught to go to confession,” he suggested that the church has yet to make a full accounting of its wrongs.

Egan said the church should “defrock all the priests” who abused children, “as well as the bishops who were involved in this whole coverup. Why should these priests be walking around when a Boy Scout leader gets convicted and gets 20 years?”

ON HAND AT the White House and at the National Shrine yesterday was the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley. The Capuchin friar first came to public attention as the bishop of the Fall River diocese who settled lawsuits by sexual abuse victims of the Rev. James Porter. O’Malley took over in Boston for Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace in 2002 after revelations of sexual abuse cases in the archdiocese.

O’Malley’s office was unable to arrange an interview for his reaction last night.

Former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican during the Clinton administration, said he is among those who have exhorted Benedict to meet with some of those Americans abused by priests as children.

Flynn said he made the entreaty to Benedict — part of a personal campaign involving church officials — during a visit to Rome last November and December.

“I told the Holy Father, ‘It would be a very important gesture to deal with the clergy sex abuse scandal,’ ” Flynn recalled. “ ‘If anybody tells you that’s not a big deal with American Catholics, that’s wrong.’ ”

According to Flynn, the pope “just listened.”

At the White House yesterday, Flynn said the pope’s expression of personal shame over the scandal “is a very positive, deeply important first step.” But Flynn said there are Catholics — abused or not — who have left the church “deeply pained” by the scandal. For such people, Flynn said a “meeting with some of the victims would send a very important, powerful, moral welcome back to the church.”

FLYNN SPOKE after a greeting ceremony of rare spectacle, even for the White House, which hosted a pope for only the second time on a splendid spring morning of chirping birds and budding tulips — in the same color yellow as the flag of the Holy See.

The Marine Band played sacred airs, a fife-and-drum corps in Colonial garb played “Yankee Doodle” as it marched in review before Mr. Bush and Benedict. Renowned soprano Kathleen Battle sang, “The Lord’s Prayer” and a military chorus intoned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

The heavy American inflection even extended to a bit of improvisation in a 90-minute program that otherwise ran like clockwork. “Happy Birthday!” shouted a man from the far bleachers, and the crowd burst into a spontaneous a cappella version of the song by that name.

Across Pennsylvania Avenue in Lafayette Park were droves of pilgrims who had traveled across the country to sing “Alleluia,” play guitars and wave banners for a pope they had little hope of seeing. “We are here to help spread the word,” said Monica Hernandez of Los Angeles, “that there is hope for the world.”

Journal staff writer Tom Mooney contributed to this report.Benedict’s schedule

•Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass at Nationals Park in Washington at 10 a.m. today. Later, he will address Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America.

rdujardi@projo.com