Pope Francis has angered people who suffered sexual abuse by the clergy by praising American bishops for their "generous commitment" to helping victims.
Advocates hit back, saying the bishops acted only under the threat of hundreds of lawsuits.
Addressing church leaders in a prayer service at Washington cathedral, Francis said they had faced the crisis "without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice".
"I realise how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims - in the knowledge that in healing we, too, are healed - and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated," the Pope said to loud applause from the bishops.
But the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said the bishops had displayed "cowardice and callousness" in response to victims who came forward and they "hide behind expensive lawyers and public relations professionals" instead of fully confronting the scope of the problem within the church.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, an advocacy group that collects records on abusive priests from around the world, called the Pope's remarks "distressing and quite off-base".
Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi defended Francis' comments, saying it was appropriate to recognise the bishops' reforms in response to the scandal given the US church is now a model for other countries to follow.
"I am not surprised there are critics that are not happy, but this is not the first time," he said.
He said the Pope cannot simply keep beating down the bishops but must offer them words of encouragement.
The abuse crisis erupted in 2002 with the case of one pedophile priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, then spread nationwide. The revelations in Boston, about guilty priests kept in ministry without any warning to parents or police, persuaded thousands of people across the country to come forward with abuse claims, prompted grand jury investigations in several states and compelled the bishops to take an inventory of how every American diocese had dealt with perpetrators and victims going back decades.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article