Pope Benedict XVI did nothing to punish pedophile priests or Church seniors who looked the other way, according to US and Irish victims hoping his successor will focus on fighting sex abuse. Barbara Blaine, founder and president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called the outgoing pope's record "dismal." "He has made lofty statements. He has not matched those statements with deed or action. Under his reign, the children remained at risk," Blaine said.

A group representing victims of child abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland on Monday welcomed the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI after "he promised a lot but delivered nothing". "This pope had a great opportunity to finally address the decades of abuse in the church but at the end of the day he did nothing but promise everything and in the end he ultimately delivered nothing," John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse support group, told AFP.

The Vatican's new chief prosecutor against clerical child abuse on Tuesday said his office was receiving around 600 new cases a year, many of them dating back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Father Robert Oliver, a canon law specialist who previously worked at the archdiocese of Boston in the United States where abuse cases came to light a decade ago, was appointed in December. Oliver, whose official title is "promoter of justice" for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the peak in reported cases was in 2004 with 800 denunciations.

A US Catholic cardinal stripped of his duties said Friday he didn't know how to handle sex abuse claims, as he had not learned about it at college -- drawing withering criticism from victims. Retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote on his blog that he was not taught about child sexual abuse, a day after was relieved of all administrative and public duties" by the current archbishop of LA. On Thursday the LA archdiocese also released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.