New York ? The former child protection officer for the U.S. bishops says the Vatican owes an apology to victims of clergy sex abuse.

“The victims and their families are deserving of overdue apologies from the highest levels of the church,” Kathleen McChesney wrote in the May 30 edition of the Jesuit magazine America.

“The repeated generic expressions of sorrow made by bishops have been well received, but acts and words of compassion and understanding from the Holy See itself are greatly needed,” she wrote.

McChesney also said the abuse scandal should prompt church leaders to give “serious thought” to allowing priests to marry.

“Psychosexual maturity and self-knowledge are essential,” she wrote.

McChesney, a former top FBI official, was the first leader of the Office of Child and Youth Protection, which the bishops created in response to the molestation crisis. She stepped down earlier this year.

McChesney said Pope Benedict XVI needs to understand that the abuse crisis is not over, and noted that more than 1,000 new abuse claims were made in American dioceses last year.