The Catholic Church will take steps to prevent child sexual abuse committed by priests, the pope Benedict XVI assures. The victims remain skeptical.

Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he would not sit idly by pedophilia scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

Speaking during his weekly audience, St. Peter’s Square, Pope has promised to help recalling that he had met in Malta last Sunday of the victims with whom he “shared suffering” and that he assured that the Church “acting” to address these crimes.

The assurance of Pope Benedict XVI is not sufficient in the eyes of the American Civil Victims of pedophile priests (SNAP).

This grouping of some 9,000 victims believes that these verbal and written promises will have no impact. The president of SNAP, Brenda Blaine said that when the pope promised acts, he means “cosmetic changes”.

A letter and a procedure:

before his meeting with victims of pedophile priests in Malta, Pope Benedict XVI had sent a letter to the faithful of Ireland, on March 20 last, when he accused the bishops of covering up cases of sexual abuse children.

The Vatican has also made public April 12 on its website, the procedure in cases of sexual abuse, whose perpetrators must be condemned.

The Church is the center of a series of scandals of sexual assaults on minors by members of the clergy in Europe and in North America and South America, often stifled by the Catholic hierarchy. The pope himself is suspected of wanting to strangle one such case involving an American priest.

The pope convinces the public that the acts committed by some priests should not spill over the whole Church.