Survivors’ advocates urged cardinals on Wednesday to elect a pope who will put the Church’s clergy-abuse crisis front and center, saying three consecutive pontiffs have failed to do so.

Victims’ advocates urged on Wednesday that the next pope make clergy sexual abuse the focal point of his papacy, saying recent pontiffs have fallen short. Three decades of scandals involving paedophile priests and cover-ups have eroded the Church’s credibility and cost it hundreds of millions in settlements. “This must be the central issue in the conclave,” said SNAP co-founder Peter Isely in Rome, unveiling a website cataloguing alleged cover-ups by senior church officials.

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