VATICAN CITY � Pope Francis called Sunday for an "all-out battle" against sexual abuse as he concluded a conference that Roman Catholic bishops said was a turning point for the church, even as victims lamented that little had been accomplished during the four-day meeting.
In his closing address, Francis declared that priests who abuse children are "tools of Satan" and described their crimes as "utterly incompatible with (the church's) moral authority and ethical credibility." Both, he said, had been further damaged by the church hierarchy's history of cover-up and inaction.
"In the people's justified anger, the church sees the reflection of the wrath of God � betrayed and insulted by these deceitful consecrated persons," Francis said. "This cry will shake the hearts of those dulled by hypocrisy and power."
Much of the pope's lengthy speech, however, focused outside the Vatican's walls, condemning the spread of internet pornography and "ideological disputes and journalistic practices that often exploit ... the tragedy."
"We have been our own worst enemy," he said. "We have shown too little mercy, and therefore we will receive the same. We will not go unpunished."
He called for a "Copernican Revolution" in church leaders' thinking on the issue, referencing the 15th paradigm shift in which the world abandoned past notions that the sun revolved around the Earth.
"Those who have been abused do not revolve around the church, but the church around them," he said.
The roughly 200 bishops and superiors of religious orders in attendance will return home with no immediate solutions, despite the pope's call at the conference's opening for "concrete and effective measures" to be put in place.
Still, several church leaders said their eyes had been opened by the conference speakers, including an African nun who condemned the church's male hierarchy for hypocrisy and a Mexican TV journalist who said the press would continue to be "your worst enemy" unless they the church changed its ways.
Francis asked the conference organizers_a committee that included Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago �� to remain in Rome to begin translating some of the measures discussed during the week into concrete policies.
Among the possible reforms up for adoption were 21 points that Francis distributed to the prelates on the conference's opening day. They include expanding roles for Catholic laity in investigations and requiring prelates to report abuse to civil authorities in their countries �� which U.S. bishops already do.
The pope laid out another pledge of priorities during his speech Sunday, calling for an end to the knee-jerk defensiveness of some members of the hierarchy and a vow to end cover-ups in all forms.
"We want the church to once again be absolutely credible and reliable in her mission of service and education for the children," he said later during his weekly appearance at St. Peter's Square.
Cupich, with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, said at a news conference Friday that the Vatican was also working to shore up a 2016 church law that was supposed to make negligence in handling abuse claims a fireable offense.
Last fall, the U.S. bishops sought to vote on their own set of reforms to better hold themselves accountable �� including the establishment of a panel led by Catholic laity to investigate problem prelates. But the Vatican blocked their efforts, fearing that the suggestion would run afoul of church law.
In Cupich's proposal, floated in an address to the conference Friday, he suggested responsibility for investigating the failures of bishops be placed in the hands of regional authorities, like the archbishop of the closest metropolitan area to any of the nation's dioceses.
Speaking Saturday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its representative at the Vatican conference, said it was likely that the nation's prelates would vote on some combination of Cupich's proposal, as would the lay-led board at its next general meeting in June.
"When I get back home, I think I can go before ... all the bishops and say that I think there is some affirmation from this meeting of what we wanted to do," he said in an interview with Crux, which covers the Catholic Church.
As Coleridge, the Australian archbishop, closed his homily Sunday he starkly described the stakes.
"We will do all in our power to make sure the horrors of the past are not repeated, and the church is a safe place for all," he said. "All this will take time. But we don't have forever, and we dare not fail."
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