Earlier in the day, the pope visits ground zero to offer prayers at the former site of the World Trade Center.

AP / Kathy Willens

NEW YORK — Pope Benedict XVI yesterday ventured into the Bronx to celebrate a festive Mass in the house that Ruth built, capping a remarkable week that saw him attempt to offer healing to the victims of clerical sexual abuse and pray at the scene of ground zero.

In Yankee Stadium, on the last day of a six-day visit, Benedict was greeted by the cheers of nearly 60,000 people who came from all areas of the country to see the third pontiff to visit American soil and to offer their good wishes with shouts of “Viva Papa” and “We Love the Pope.”

Though the pastoral tone of Benedict’s visit has surprised some Catholics who had expected more of a disciplinarian, the pontiff yesterday underlined the Catholic Church’s key role of shepherd.

“Authority, obedience. To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays,” he acknowledged, especially in a society which he said “rightly” places a high value on personal freedom.

But those words need not be stumbling blocks, he added, when they are seen in the light of faith. “The gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love,” he said. “Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves.”

About 200 Rhode Islanders were among those at the Mass in the stadium. Nearly all of them had set out for New York by bus early yesterday morning. Half of them — including 16 seminarians and two dozen students and faculty in the Diocese of Providence’s six Catholic high schools — discovered their seats were out in the centerfield bleachers. The altar sat, facing home plate, on an elevated stage erected just outside second base.

“I was personally disappointed when I saw his popemobile wasn’t making the loop around the field,” said Deborah DeAngelo, a teacher and chaperone to three students from Fatima High School, in Warren.

“Then I decided to accept it, and to open my heart to experience it as a coming together of the whole community of Christ.”

When the Mass ended, and sounds of the hymn “Joyful Joyful, We Adore Thee” filled the stadium, the 81-year-old pope, his gold vestments glittering in the sun and his crozier in hand, made his way to the popemobile, pausing to greet dozens of priests stretching their arms to reach him from below.

There was a brief pause as the pope went inside an area near the Yankee dugout for a change into his white papal coat, and got back into his vehicle. It was then that DeAngelo began praying that she and the students would be able to see the Holy Father close up. They did, as the vehicle edged its way slowly in front of the bleachers

“I’m really glad,” said Fatima senior Paul Boucher. “To see the leader of the Catholic faith before me, it was so moving.”

Tim Wahl, 19, one of the Diocese of Providence’s first-year seminarians and a brother of Hendricken High School senior Michael Wahl, who sat a few rows back, said he had kept up with the other parts of the papal visit on television, and was inspired by his message of hope. “He is also very supportive of the seminarians. It’s inspiring to me to know the pontiff is looking after future priests.”

The Rev. David Gaffney, who directs the seminary’s spiritual formation program, said the pope’s reaching out to victims of sexual abuse during his visit showed the pope’s great pastoral concern for all the Catholic faithful. “It some ways, it’s a turning of the page. It’s also a new chapter in that healing and reconciliation is being brought about by the work of our chief shepherd.”

St. Raphael Academy senior William Lopes, 18, who was joined by fellow seniors Stephanie Desorcy, 17, Eric Badzmierowski, 17, said it was “awesome” to see all the people come out to see the pope. The visit will undoubtedly make a difference for the future of the Catholic church, he said.

Among Rhode Islanders who had seats near the first base line were about 30 members of the Knights of Columbus and about 15 spouses. Peg Ciolfi, whose husband, Stephen, is the state secretary, said she and her husband had to scramble about a month ago when Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin told them he was giving them 50 tickets, but he had to have all the names of all the applicants in 24 hours.

“We had well over 100 people who asked for tickets, but half of them came after the deadline.” As it was, about five people had to drop out, but they couldn’t be replaced because of Secret Service requirements allowing only people who were on the original list.

In his sermon, Benedict drew his strongest applause when he called on young people to find the courage to proclaim Christ “the same yesterday, today and forever” and the “unchanging truths which have their foundation in him.”

He declared: “These are the truths that set us free. They are the truths which alone can guarantee the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our work, including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child.”

rdujardi@projo.com