Pope Celebrates Mass in Yankee Stadium

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final Mass in the United States before a full house in storied Yankee Stadium on Sunday, blessing his enormous U.S. flock and telling Americans to use their freedoms wisely.

Benedict beamed before a joyous crowd of 57,000, hours after making a solemn stop to pray at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

He called the Mass "a summons to move forward with firm resolve to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations."

And he repeated a core message of his six-day pilgrimage - that faith must play a role in public life, citing the need to oppose abortion.

The unwavering truth of the Roman Catholic message, he said, guarantees respect for the dignity of all "including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother's womb." The crowd applauded the line.

Worshippers filled the stadium, chanting, clapping and waving white and yellow handkerchiefs in the Vatican's colors as the white popemobile pulled in.