VATICAN CITY - Buoyed by the cheers and applause of thousands of pilgrims Wednesday and seeming in good spirits himself, Pope John Paul II made his first public appearance since the news broke earlier in the week that he had called American cardinals to Rome for a summit over the pedophilia scandals staining the U.S. Church.
While he spoke of problems in countries ranging from Venezuela to Vietnam, John Paul made no mention of the sex abuse scandals in the United States and elsewhere that have shaken many Catholics' trust in priests and prompted him to call the extraordinary summit for next week.
The Vatican Monday night confirmed that the cardinals had been summoned by John Paul.
The pontiff has been criticized by some in his flock for failing to act fast enough as allegation after allegation piled up in the United States that many priests had molested young people.
Among those called to the Catholic Church's headquarters for meetings with the pope and other top Vatican officials has been Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, whose handling of cases of accused priests in his diocese provoked calls for the American churchman's resignation.
On Wednesday, Vatican officials were mum about Law's secret trip to meet here with the pope and discuss the resignation possibility.
Law, in a statement released by his archdiocese Tuesday night, said his talks at the Vatican encouraged him to stay on to work on the pedophilia problem.
The whereabouts of Law Wednesday was not clear.
But Vatican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Law has been back in the United States for at least two days now.
Without comment, the Vatican's press office Wednesday morning released the Law statement that was made available in Boston Tuesday night.
In the statement, Law said that the pope was "very conscious of the gravity of the situation" and that the Holy See was intent on protecting children.
At the general audience for some 10,000 pilgrims and tourists, John Paul seemed cheerful although his voice was tired and his speech slurred, a symptom of Parkinson's disease.
Seated throughout the audience, the 81-year-old pontiff, who has been slowed down by health problems, smiled at groups from his native Poland, waving as they sang a folk song and beating his hand to keep time with the song played by an Italian band.
On Tuesday, Vatican Radio described the April 23-24 meeting of cardinals as an attempt to "clear up the shadows" cast on the U.S. church by the scandals.
Vatican officials said the U.S. cardinals next week would meet with the pope. Three non-American cardinals heading Vatican offices will be involved in the consultations, aimed at formulating guidelines to deal with the scandals and prevent sexual abuse.
U.S. bishops will be meeting in the United States in June to come up with a comprehensive policy, and the Rome summit is expected to spell out what the Vatican would like to see in such guidelines.
Just last week, American bishops in charge of the U.S. Bishops Conference spent days at the Holy See briefing the pope and other top Vatican officials about the situation back home. Although it appears that Law was likely in Rome then, the head of the conference, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, on Saturday said he had no knowledge if Law had or would be having meetings at the Vatican.
Scandals have broken out in Australia, Ireland, France, Spain, the pope's native Poland and elsewhere.
The American Church is one of the Vatican's biggest financial backers, and the financial repercussions of paying out millions of dollars in settlement by U.S. dioceses might be alarming also on the financial side of the Holy See.