Pope Francis vowed Friday that the Catholic Church will never again treat abuse allegations without "seriousness and promptness", calling on abusers to hand themselves in to police. "The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case," the pope said in his annual address to the Church's governing Curia at the Vatican.

"Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes". A litany of child sexual abuse scandals has rocked the Roman Catholic Church, which has 1.3 billion followers around the world, with the pope as recently as Wednesday accepting the resignation of a US auxiliary bishop over his "misconduct" with a minor.