Nun vents anger at Vatican abuse summit

"Why did we keep silent for so long?" Nigerian nun Veronica Openibo has asked at the Vatican child abuse summit as a journalist said the church must act.

Pope Francis attending opening session of a global child protection summit for reflections on the sex abuse crisis within the Catholic Church. Source: AAP/Vatican Media

A nun and a woman journalist have delivered the toughest criticism of church leaders heard so far at Pope Francis' sexual abuse conference, accusing them of hypocrisy and covering up horrendous crimes against children.

About 200 senior church officials, all but 10 of them men, listened at times in stunned silence in a Vatican audience hall as the women read their frank and at times angry speeches on Saturday, the penultimate day of the conference convened by the Pope to confront a worldwide scandal.

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