A Vatican commission on child protection set up by Pope Francis said Sunday that the fight against abuse must be the priority of the Catholic Church and emphasised the importance of listening to victims. "This must be the priority that we concentrate on right now," said commission head Cardinal Sean O'Malley, adding that otherwise "all of our other activities of evangelisation, works of mercy, education, are all going to suffer."

The Church has been deeply shaken by a series of child abuse scandals across the world, and the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was created in 2014 and renewed earlier this year to address the issue. "We make a real effort to bring the voices of the survivors to church leadership," O'Malley told the Vatican's news website on Sunday after the end of the commission's ninth plenary assembly.