Victims of clergy sexual abuse say millions of children remain at risk
Millions of children still at risk while Church fails to deal with the problem, activists say
Victims of clergy sexual abuse urged newly-elected Pope Francis to reform the Catholic Church and declare "zero tolerance" for sex crimes as his first official act.
"St Francis was the greatest reformer in the history of the church, Pope Francis must do the same," the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or Snap, said in a statement.
US-based Snap warned that millions of children remained at risk from paedophile priests because the Church had not yet reversed long-standing policies of covering up reports of sexual abuse by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.
Insisting that the Jesuit order from which he hailed had a "troubled" track record on paedophilia, Snap said Francis "has both an enormous opportunity and duty to help prevent heinous assaults against kids by this crucial and relatively secretive segment of the Catholic clergy".
"Very little about this crisis has been exposed in South and Central America. We worry about the safety of children in the church there," the group added.
"For the safety of kids and the healing of victims, we hope he starts by exposing the names of predator priests - current and former, living and deceased - in his home archdiocese."