Pope Benedict has visited Ground Zero, site of the World Trade Centre destroyed in the September 11 attacks, to pray for the victims and their families and for an end to hatred and violence.
In the high point of his visit to the United States, the pope blessed the crater and spoke with each of 24 special guests. They were 16 relatives of people killed when the jets hit the towers and eight survivors - four World Trade Center workers and four first responders who rushed to help.
The 81-year-old pontiff prayed for peace, hope and healing, including for those who became ill after breathing toxic air in the ruins.
He read out a prayer for those who died at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and on United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
"God of peace ... turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred," he said.
"Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain. Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all."
The passage about those with "minds consumed with hatred" has stirred controversy because some people interpreted it as a prayer for hijackers who died on the planes.
Vatican officials have not interpreted the prayer but noted that Benedict has in the past urged radicals to eschew violence and use only peaceful means. The wording appeared to indicate he meant those alive.
After the pope left, the 24 guests were given small crosses made of the steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center and inscribed with the words "Remembering 9-11."
Benedict was due to hold a final Mass for about 55,000 people at New York's Yankee Stadium in the afternoon before leaving for Rome in the evening.
Yesterday, Pope Benedict urged the US Catholic Church to overcome its divisions and seek "purification" and the truth following its sexual abuse scandal.
He had begun the penultimate day of his first US papal visit with a solemn Mass in New York's St Patrick's Cathedral, the Gothic church completed in 1879 with the pennies of immigrants and known as the center of American Catholicism.
For the fifth consecutive day, the pope spoke out about the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the U.S. Church and has cost it some $2 billion in settlement payments with victims.
In his sermon, he said he was spiritually close to the US Church as it deals with the aftermath of the scandal and cleanses and renews itself.
"I join you in praying that this will be a time of purification for each and every particular Church and religious community, a time for healing. I also encourage you to cooperate with your bishops who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue," he said.
The pope, who lamented "division between different groups, different generations, different members of the same religious family," asked God to grant the US Church "a renewed sense of unity and purpose" so that it could "move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another."