The Vatican insisted that it is committed to stamping out sexual abuse by the clergy, yet would not confirm whether it would be releasing its data on sexual abuse cases.

Confronted publicly for the first time at a United Nations hearing in Geneva, Vatican officials faced a barrage of hard questions such as why they would not release full data and what they were doing to prevent future abuse.

Among the officials appearing before the Committee on the Rights of the Child was Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna, who served as the Vatican’s chief sex crimes prosecutor for a decade up to 2012.

Mgr Scicluna acknowledged that the Holy See had been slow to face the crisis but that it was now committed to doing so.

“The Holy See gets it,” he told the committee. “Let’s not say too late or not. But there are certain things that need to be done differently.”

The Holy See is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a legally binding instrument which commits it to protecting and nurturing the most vulnerable in society.

There are certain things that need to be done differently

It ratified the convention in 1990, but after an implementation report in 1994, it did not submit any progress reports until 2012, following revelations of child sex abuse in Europe and beyond.

Critics allege the Church enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting paedophile priests to defend its reputation.

Mgr Scicluna insisted that it was not a policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups.

“Our guideline has always been that domestic law of the countries where the churches operate needs to be followed,” he added.

Responding to whether the Church should be concentrating on substituting institutions with family-based care, Mgr Scicluna said that adoption was a very important aspect.

“Our preference lies with family set-ups – although it is not always possible. But minors should grow up in family set-ups.”

He told the committee that the Maltese diocese works with society and the government to encourage Maltese family set-ups over institutionalisation.