A group of survivors of clergy sexual abuse released on Wednesday its Dirty Dozen, which refers to a list of 12 cardinals who do not deserve to become pope to replace Pope Benedict XVI who resigned on Feb 28.

It is headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

The 11 others are Cardinals Sean O'Malley of Boston, Donald Wuerl of Washington, Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, Norberto River of Mexico, Marc Ouellet of Canada, Peter Turkson of Ghana, George Pell of Australia, Tarcisio Bertone of Italy, Angelo Scola of Italy, Leonardo Sandri of Argentina and Dominik Duka of the Czech Republic.

At least four of them are considered papabiles by bookmaker Paddy Power , - Cardinals Ouellet, Turkson, Scola and Sandri.

The Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the basis of the cardinals' inclusion in the roster is how they handled child sex abuse accusations based mainly on their actions or public comments culled from media reports, legal filings and statement of victims.

Ahead of the conclave, SNAP challenged some of the cardinals not to attend the pre-conclave meetings since they have been accused as being accomplices by protecting priests accused of sexual abuse by minors.

However, in response to the SNAP challenge, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi was quoted by CNN as saying, "We believe it is not up to SNAP to decide who comes to conclave and who is chosen . . . cardinals can decide themselves without asking SNAP for advice."

David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP, said the network deliberately focused on cardinals who have realistic chances of being elected pope in a conclave expected to take place in the coming days.

"The single quickest and most effective step would be for the next pope to clearly discipline, demote, denounce and even defrock cardinals and bishops who are concealing child sex crimes. We think that's the missing piece," he said.

Of the 115 cardinals who will take part in the conclave, 113 are already in Vatican. The only ones en route are Warsaw Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz and Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh.

The SNAP challenge came on the same day that a New York Times/CBS Survey released its findings that 70 per cent of American Catholics believe the former pope and Vatican handled the sexual abuse cases poorly. Because of that perception, many of the survey respondents question Vatican's moral authority.

Thus, the poll showed 75 per cent agreed with Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and want a younger pope with fresh ideas who would have a more liberal approach towards the Church's teachings.

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