Pope gets warm welcome

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. — Pope Benedict XVI stepped onto U.S. soil for the first time as pontiff Tuesday, arriving to a presidential handshake and wild cheering only hours after he admitted that he is "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has devastated the American church.

Pope Benedict gave hundreds of spectators a two-handed wave as he stepped off a special Alitalia airliner that brought him from Rome. Students from a local Catholic school screamed ecstatically when they saw the pope, who shook hands warmly with President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Jenna on the tarmac.

Hundreds of onlookers, some from local Roman Catholic parishes, clapped and shouted as they watched the scene from nearby bleachers.

Pope Benedict tackled the most painful issue facing the U.S. Catholic Church — clergy sex abuse — on his flight to America. The U.S. church has paid out $2 billion in abuse costs since 1950, most of that in just the last six years.

Seemingly in a nod to his American flock, the pope spoke in English as he answered questions submitted in advance by reporters.

"It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Pope Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children."

"I am deeply ashamed, and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said.

Pope Benedict pledged that pedophiles would not be priests in the Catholic Church.

"I do not wish to talk at this moment about homosexuality, but about pedophilia, which is another thing," he said.

"We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry. It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound."

Gary Bergeron, who was molested by a priest in the 1970s in Lowell, Mass., called the comments a "step I've been looking for." Bergeron said he was disappointed that Pope Benedict did not plan to visit the Archdiocese of Boston, the scene of a case that sparked the greater scandal, but urged the pontiff to meet with victims this week.