Pope to abusers: face the music

Pope Francis is demanding that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in, and vows that the Catholic Church will ‘‘never again’’ hide their crimes.

Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to Vatican bureaucrats yesterday to abuse, evidence that a year of devastating revelations of sexual misconduct and cover-up around the globe has shaken his papacy and caused a crisis of confidence in the Catholic hierarchy.

Francis acknowledged that the church in the past had failed to treat the problem seriously, blaming leaders who, out of inexperience or short-sightedness, acted ‘‘irresponsibly’’ by refusing to believe victims.

But he vowed that going forward, the church would ‘‘never again’’ cover up or dismiss cases.

‘‘The church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes,’’ he said.

Francis urged victims to come forward, thanked the media for giving them a voice, and issued a stark warning to abusers: ‘‘Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice.’’

His remarks capped a dreadful year for the Catholic Church, one that began with his botched handling of a sprawling sex abuse scandal in Chile and ended with the United States Catholic hierarchy in a freefall of credibility as state prosecutors began uncovering decades of coverups.

Francis has summoned church leaders from around the globe for a February abuse prevention summit.

His blanket demand abusers turn themselves that in to face ‘‘human justice’’ was significant, and echoed his previous demands for mafia bosses and corrupt politicians to convert. Vatican guidelines currently only call for bishops to report priestly abusers to police in those countries where civil law requires it – a technicality that survivors and their advocates have long blasted as a convenient dodge to the church’s moral obligation to protect children regardless of what civil law requires. Survivors and their advocates, however, found Francis’s words hollow, noting that just this week the chief prosecutor in the US state of Illinois accused church officials there of hiding the names of around 500 priests accused of abuse.

Francis warned the Vatican bureaucrats who run the 1.2 billion-strong church that the scandal now undermines the credibility of the entire Catholic enterprise.

He urged those who have been victims of sexual abuse, abuse of power and abuse of conscience to speak out.

‘‘The greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth,’’ he said.