MSNBC - Thousands of priests from around the world have massed in Rome in one of the largest such gatherings ever in a major show of support for Pope Benedict XVI amid the clerical abuse scandal.

Benedict is expected to address them Thursday evening in an eagerly anticipated vigil service in St. Peter's Square. It's not know whether Benedict will refer to the crisis, but his No. 2 told the prelates Wednesday that the scandal had pained and damaged the church and shown the need for a spiritual rebirth.

An estimated 9,000 priests are in Rome to celebrate the end of the church's year of the priest — a year that has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse and Vatican inaction to stop it.

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