The Vatican must open up its archives on sexual abuse by priests, an Austrian victim support group said on Thursday, saying the Church's new rules on handling abuse cases were insufficient. "Ecclesiastical justice is of no interest to us. The Vatican is still not ready to open up its archives and hand over to the civil authorities the records concerning abuse," a spokeman for a group called Victims of Church Violence, Franz-Jakob said.
In a bid to fend off charges of high level complacency towards sex abuse, the Roman Catholic Church moved on Thursday to accelerate internal investigations and extended by a decade the statute of limitations in abuse cases.
But the new rules immediately drew criticism for sidestepping the issue of turning abusers in to the courts.
Another group, Air sind Carte (We Are the Church) which represents the progressive wing of the Catholic Church in Austria, also dismissed the measures as "insufficient".
"The measures don't go to the roots of the structures within the Church. This abuse is actually an abuse of power in sexualised form," said spokesman Peter Aorta.
"There should be structural changes, limiting and monitoring the power of all Church officials, including that of bishops and the pope," Aorta said.
SIC: SMHAU