The president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Children, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, chose strong words this week at the presentation of the Catholic Church's first global anti-abuse report.
"We know that you have had enough of empty words," the former Archbishop of Boston addressed those affected.
However, they were disappointed with the pilot report, which is intended to scrutinise the implementation of canonical protection measures in the local Catholic churches.
One reason for this is the methodology of the review: the respective bishops' conferences of the country are surveyed in a standardised manner - either during their regular visit to the Vatican or at their own request.
Questionable source situation
For the current reporting period, this was 17 bishops' conferences during their regular ad limina visit.
However, there are doubts about the reliability of some of the statements. According to people familiar with the situation in some of the countries listed, the bishops' accounts sometimes do not correspond to the reality on the ground.
"Unfortunately, we know from experience that bishops don't always tell the truth," says Anne Barrett Doyle. She runs the website BishopAccountability.org, an archive of clerical abuse cases.
The reliance on self-reporting by bishops is therefore a weak point of the report.
The German expert on abuse protection, Hans Zollner, has a similar view: "For reasons that have not been mentioned, it remains unclear who compiled this feedback, with what expertise and what awareness of the problem." This also leaves the question of quality unanswered or at least incomprehensible.
The Director of the Safeguarding Institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome is in favour of verification by independent local experts in future. Specific local knowledge is also needed for the subsequent categorisation in the report.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Children plans to compile a comprehensive picture of the Church's worldwide protection measures within five to six annual reports on the basis of its surveys.
The results so far show "a clear commitment to protection" on the part of some local churches, while others are only just beginning to "recognise the Church's responsibility in relation to cases of abuse".
In principle, the commission's report calls for more transparency for victims in relation to their church procedures, clear responsibilities in the Vatican structures when dealing with cases of abuse, streamlined disciplinary procedures and compensation for those affected.
No concrete cases - accusation of concealment
US-American Barrett Doyle considers these demands to be praiseworthy. However, she criticises the lack of insight into the "reality on the ground". "The only important protection test is whether bishops remove abusers," says Barrett Doyle.
However, the commission only investigates whether certain infrastructures are in place. "While such an overview is of some value, it also causes unintended harm. It masks the reality of ongoing sexual assault and cover-ups," Barrett Doyle concludes.
The report states that it was "not intended as an examination of the prevalence of abuse in the church context".
In particular, there was a lack of time and capacity for this, but also a lack of reliable data in some countries, especially on the number of sexually abused children. It is to be hoped that future reports will address this. "This could fulfil the Commission's long-term audit function more fully."
In addition to the bishops' conferences, the report deals with the measures taken in two religious orders and in the aid organisation Caritas.
"Spiritual communities, which play a major role in many countries, are not mentioned at all, nor are Catholic universities, schools or boarding schools," criticises Hans Zollner.
"The issue of safeguarding adults in situations of vulnerability, the abuse of religious women or clerical abuse should be dealt with separately." He hopes that the process of developing a report that adequately reflects the real situation will continue.
A "house of cards built on sand"
The co-founder of the Italian victims' network "Rete l'abuso", Francesco Zanardi, does not see any concrete changes for the victims in the report.
The work of the commission, a "house of cards built on sand", is completely at odds with the opinions of "victims, survivors and organisations".
Commission President O'Malley said at the presentation that there was still a lot to do. The 80-year-old has headed the very limited committee since it was established by the Pope in 2014.
It is not known how long his mandate will last. Vatican circles suspect that his secretary Luis Manuel Ali Herrera will succeed him. Irrespective of this, the next reports are planned for the coming years.