A dozen victims abused by pedophile priests held a Good Friday protest outside the New York cathedral as services to mark one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar were held inside."I, along with many others here today, want to show the Catholic Church that the victims are no longer silent. We have been silent for too long," said 47-year-old Tim Walsh.
"We are asking for justice and truth for the victims, that the Church recognize what they have done, be truthful about it and Christ-like."
Walsh says he was abused as a child in a parish in Huntington Station, New York state, but only began to actively protest in 2002 when he realized he wasn't alone.
"I want these people to come clean with what they have been doing and are still doing," he said.
The group from the Coalition of Survivors demonstrating outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, were handing out leaflets urging the church to end its silence about the scandal.
"The Vatican's credibility at this point is less than zero because of what they have done to cover it up for centuries and intimidate their own victims," said Walsh.
"The pope was the leader of the congregation of the doctrine of faith and he saw those abuses for over 20 years."
The child abuse scandal has engulfed much of Europe and the United States in the past weeks, prompting harsh criticism of the Vatican's handling of the scourge.
Pope Benedict XVI faces allegations that, as archbishop of Munich and later as the Vatican's chief morals enforcer, he helped to protect predator priests.
One US lawyer has gone to court seeking to have the pope questioned over the scandal.
Lawyer William McMurry filed a motion in a Kentucky court Tuesday seeking to take sworn testimony from the pope on what the Vatican knew about the long-running scandal of predator priests.
The motion, a copy of which was sent to AFP, says Benedict was aware of clergy sex abuse in the United States and that he "discouraged prosecution of accused clergy and encouraged secrecy to protect the reputation of the Church" in the 24 years that he led the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
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SIC: AFP