A 'tearful' Pope has met Catholic sex abuse victims for the first time since the worldwide scandal engulfed the Vatican earlier this year.
He expressed his "shame and sorrow" at the pain the victims and their families had suffered and he prayed with them at the Vatican's embassy.
It was his most personal and forceful statement on the scandal since a letter to Irish Catholics a month ago.
The Vatican said: "He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations."
It said this was "to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future".
Victims' groups have demanded the Vatican take concrete steps to protect children and remove abusive priests.
There were big crowds at the Mass
Benedict has been accused of being part of a cover-up over the abuse, in his earlier roles as an archbishop in Germany and later at the helm of the Vatican morals office.
The Vatican said the group of eight men, in their 30s and 40s, met him in the chapel of the Vatican embassy in Malta.
Afterwards, one of them, Joseph Magro, 38, said: "Everybody was crying. I told him my name was Joseph, and he had tears in his eyes."
He said the men had received a telephone call in the morning to come to the embassy and that the pontiff had spent a few minutes with each of them.
He said the encounter, which lasted about 35 minutes, was "fantastic".
"The climate was intense but very serene," said Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi.
The pontiff made no direct reference to the scandal during a Mass. He told Maltese to cling to their faith despite the temptations of modern society.