Pontiff Assails U.S. Church, Sex Abuse by Priests : Catholics: Rhetoric is some of his strongest as he also rails against abortion, euthanasia. Pope calls wayward clerics’ misconduct ‘evil.’ He cites need for prayer.

DENVER —  In some of his most powerful rhetoric ever, Pope John Paul II on Saturday reproached the American church and the sexual misconduct of some of its priests, and inveighed with fiery righteousness against abortion, euthanasia, artificial birth control and environmental destruction.

“Why do the consciences of young people not rebel against this situation, especially against the moral evil which flows from personal choices?” the Pope thundered in a Saturday night prayer vigil at a state park outside Denver.

Laying down the law in back-to-back speeches at World Youth Day ceremonies here, the pontiff praised the “vast majority” of American Roman Catholics who are “dedicated followers of Christ.”

“Nevertheless, at a time when all institutions are suspect, the church herself has not escaped reproach,” John Paul scolded, referring to accusations of sexual misconduct among U.S. priests. According to published reports, about 400 priests have been accused of sexual molestation, with the American church paying about $400 million to settle about half of the cases.

In his first public mention of the problem, John Paul noted that he had written to American bishops in June “about the pain of the suffering and scandal caused by the sins of some ministers of the altar. Sad situations such as these invite us anew to look at the mystery of the church with the eyes of faith.

“While every human means for responding to this evil must be implemented, we cannot forget that the first and more important means is prayer,” he said.

The Pope also denounced abortion and euthanasia as “the slaughter of the innocents,” lamenting that “false prophets and false teachers have been very successful” in a 20th Century that has lurched from an unending series of wars to unprecedented ecological mayhem.

John Paul decried the underlying causes of urban violence in America and won strong applause when he pointed to the media as one of the elements that must bear responsibility for it.

The Pope’s words were remarkable for their directness in asserting well-known Vatican positions in a ringing papal appeal for moral rearmament.

“America needs much prayer lest it lose its soul,” John Paul warned.

The speeches represented a wake-up call for the world’s 950 million Roman Catholics, but they were particularly directed at the 58-million-strong American church, whose members often challenge or ignore papal teaching, particularly on bedroom issues.

“Polarization and destructive criticism have no place” among Catholics, John Paul cautioned at a prayer service at McNichols Sports Arena.

John Paul strongly reiterated his church’s ban against artificial birth control. Noting that natural family planning has advanced since the prohibition was announced a quarter-century ago, John Paul called for great effort “to educate the consciences of married couples in this form of conjugal chastity.”

Recent polls have shown that about four of five U.S. Catholics reject the ban, and it is also widely ignored in other industrialized nations. Italy’s birth rate is among the lowest in the world.

At the Vatican, some of the pontiff’s key aides recoil at what they call “supermarket Catholics,” particularly in the United States, who pick what they like of Catholic doctrine and ignore the rest. Take it all, or leave it, Vatican purists insist.

John Paul’s words were less dogmatic in speaking to the 186,000 young pilgrims attending the conference, about two-thirds of them Americans.

“I appeal especially to young people to rediscover the wealth of wisdom, the integrity of conscience and the deep interior joy which flow from respect for human sexuality understood as a great gift from God and lived according to the truth of the body’s nuptial meaning,” he said.

Voicing concern about violence among young people in the United States, John Paul said “the whole society must work to change the structural conditions which lead people, especially the young, to the lack of vision, the loss of esteem for themselves and for others which lead to violence.”

“Violence in any form is a denial of human dignity,” the Pope said. “The question which must be asked is: ‘Who is responsible?’ Individuals have a responsibility for what is happening. Families have a responsibility. Society has a heavy responsibility. Everybody must be willing to accept their part of this responsibility, including the media, which in part seems to be becoming more aware of the effect they can have on their audiences.”

John Paul mentioned the media three times, obviously enjoying the applause his comments drew.

Later he seemed a bit contrite, saying: “The Pope has not spoken against human freedom, especially American liberty. He has spoken for the good use of our freedom. . . . He has not spoken against American civilization, American television. He has spoken for an authentic promotion of what is civilization, of what is culture, human dignity.”

The 73-year-old pontiff’s closing address came Saturday night at Cherry Creek State Park, after a long day that began with a Mass in the Gothic downtown cathedral where Buffalo Bill was baptized.

At Cherry Creek, speaking alternately in English, Spanish, French and Italian at a prayer vigil, John Paul launched attacks against abortion and euthanasia, drug and alcohol abuse, pornography, sexual anarchy and violence.

The different languages and the form of presentation as a dialogue with young people may have softened his message to his pilgrims in the park. But in its sweep and power, Saturday’s speech reminded Italian reporters present of a landmark papal address in Sicily last spring that ravaged the Mafia with stunning force and fury.

“The Creator has entrusted the world to us, as a gift and as a responsibility,” John Paul told his young audience, “. . . yet millions of men and women live without making sense out of what they do and what happens to them.”

John Paul proposed love for God as the answer for humankind’s quest for meaning in a world that is increasingly complex, confusing--and threatening.

“The 20th Century has been a time of massive attacks against life, an unending series of wars and a continuing slaughter of innocent human beings,” he said. “The false prophets and the false teachers have been very successful.”

So, too, John Paul complained, have “false models of progress led to endangering the Earth’s proper ecological balance.”

“Man--made in the image and the likeness of the Creator--was meant to be the good shepherd of the environment in which he exists and lives. This is an ancient task, which the human family carried out with fair success down through history, until in recent times man himself has become the destroyer of his own natural environment.”

In meeting President Clinton, who backs abortion rights, on Thursday, John Paul made diplomatic and indirect references to the “right to life.” On Saturday, though, the Pope came out swinging against what he called the growth of “an anti-life mentality--an attitude of hostility to life in the womb and life in its last stages.”

“Precisely when science and medicine are achieving a greater capacity to safeguard health and life, the threats against life are become more insidious. Abortion and euthanasia--the actual killing of another human being--are hailed as ‘rights’ and solutions to ‘problems’--an individual problem of society’s.

“The slaughter of the innocents is no less sinful and devastating simply because it is done in a legal and scientific way. In the modern metropolis, life--God’s first gift and the fundamental right of every individual, on which all other rights are based--is often treated as just one more commodity to be organized, commercialized and manipulated according to convenience,” John Paul complained.

Christ sees all that threatens life, he stated in a brief passage in Italian. “He sees so many young people throwing away their lives in a flight into irresponsibility and falsehood. Drug and alcohol abuse, pornography and sexual disorder, violence: These are grave social problems which call for a serious response from the whole of society.”