A hard-hitting report from a United Nations special committee criticizes the Vatican’s handling of the clerical sex-abuse scandal, and demands changes in the way the Roman Catholic Church handles past and future cases of priests abusing children.

“We think it is a horrible thing that is being kept silent both by the Holy See itself and in the different local parishes,” said Kirsten Sandberg, the chairwoman of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The report calls on the Vatican:  to remove all child abusers from its ranks; to report them to law enforcement; and to open the church’s archives so that bishops and other officials who concealed crimes could be held accountable.  It puts pressure on the new Pope Francis to clean up the mess left by his predecessors.

“To us, it is a call for the civil authorities to step in.  Church officials have proved they cannot police themselves,” said Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), who added the report was “long overdue”.

The church says many of the reforms suggested in the report had already been implemented and therefore its conclusions were outdated.