Pope consoles victims of Church abuse

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POPE Benedict has talked and prayed with victims of clergy sex abuse.

The 25-minute meeting was the first publicly known meeting between a pontiff and victims since the most recent scandal erupted in Boston six years ago. It was held at the Vatican embassy on Thursday, and put an intensely personal focus on the subject that has become an important part of the Pope's visit.

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Pope warns against undermining U.N.
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Countries that act unilaterally on the world stage undermine the authority of the United Nations and weaken the broad consensus needed to confront global problems, Pope Benedict said on Friday.

In a major speech to the U.N. General Assembly, the pope also said that the international community sometimes had to intervene when a country could not protect its own people from "grave and sustained violations of human rights."

The pope, who arrived from Washington on the second leg of a U.S. trip, became only the third pontiff in history to address the General Assembly.

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