The Catholic Church has been accused of specially selecting four victims of sexual abuse for a secretive meeting with the Pope and ignoring other, more outspoken victims and their families.
This morning at St Mary's Cathedral house Pope Benedict XVI met with four people who had been sexually abused by priests before leaving Sydney to return to the Vatican.
The meeting was private and kept secret until the Pope reached the airport.
Dr Bernard Barratt from support group Broken Rites says while he appreciate the Pope's gesture, Cardinal Pell has turned the meeting into little more than a public relations exercise.
"The Pope's done his job. His job was to come and say a few things and go away. He's done that."
"It was the Sydney Church authorities who very carefully chose four victims, or so they tell us, to meet the Pope this morning. We'll take their word for that."
Dr Barrat said a specific request to meet the Popefrom Anthony and Christine Foster - whose daughters Emma and Katherine were abused, leading to Emma's suicide this year - was refused along with many other angry victims and their families.
"There's more to be done because the cover-up continues. If people like Anthony and Christine Foster are excluded then that's very dismissive and evasive.
"He was asking to meet the Pope so the Pope could ask for forgiveness from the Foster family.
"I think Mr Foster had been prepared to accept the Pope's personal apology if there had been one but there's not.
"The bottom line is today's meeting with those four very carefully chosen victims was probably a public relations exercise."
The Vatican says the meeting was a symbol of the Pope's deep concern for all those who have suffered at the hands of the clergy.
"He listened to their stories and offered them consolation," the Vatican said in a statement.
"Assuring them of his spiritual closeness, he promised to continue to pray for them, their families and all victims."
However no one knows what was said, or even who the victims were, and critics say that leaves other victims in the dark.
The meeting, which lasted about 30 minutes, was not made public until after it had occurred, but Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell said it had been weeks in the planning and defended the slection of attendees.
"There are many, many, many hundreds of people who have contacted me wanting to meet the Pope and I wasn't able to accommodate all of them.
The Fosters flew from Britain to Sydney in the hope of meeting with the Pope and the church hierarchy about the rape of their daughters by a Catholic priest.
Gemma committed suicide this year, while Katherine became a heavy drinker and was left disabled when she was hit by a drunk driver in 1999.
"They've held us on the end of a line all week knowing that we wanted to have these discussions, so we can move the church forward, and instead they've treated us with the utmost discourtesy," Mr Foster said.
"We're very disappointed that the pontiff hasn't chosen to listen to a truly representative view of victims."
The Fosters have accused the Catholic Church of stalling their compensation claim, which was eventually settled out of court after an eight-year legal battle.
