Pope Francis on Monday released a letter addressing recent revelations of a decades-long clerical sexual abuse scandal in the US, in which he said that the outcry of victims was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence them.

The pontiff said in his missive addressed "to the people of God" that no effort must be spared to prevent future cases of abuse and cover-ups, less than a week after a grand jury in the state of Pennsylvania released a report detailing the systematic rape of children by clergymen in six dioceses over a period of at least 70 years, reports Efe news. More than 300 Catholic priests were allegedly involved in these abuses and many high-ranking ecclesiastical officials were knowingly complicit in the crimes.