The Pope's vow that no effort must be spared to prevent child sexual abuse and end its cover-up by the Catholic Church is "too little too late", an Australian victims' support group says.
In an unprecedented letter to the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis said the atrocities must be condemned and "this culture of death" uprooted to prevent the crimes happening and being covered up.
Broken Rites president Chris MacIsaac said the autonomous arms of the church decided what action to take in individual cases, often falling very short of dealing up justice for victims.
Ms MacIsaac said the church was still slow to accept responsibility in abuse cases and the Vatican should admit what it knew about the worldwide scandal.
