The alleged victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy have "finally" been called in for a meeting with the Curia's Response Team and a top Vatican official which will take place in the coming days.

The team responsible for probing the cases will question the men who first made the allegations seven years ago against priests who ran an orphanage in St Venera.

However, two of the alleged victims have said the meeting with the Response Team will be nothing more than a whitewash to exonerate the priests in question.

"I think it's going to be a waste of time. Though they have finally bothered to call us, this meeting is only being held because of the pressure we've applied through the media," said Lawrence Grech, now 37.

However, the men are pinning their hopes on Rome-based Mgr Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who will also be in Malta this week to start investigating the cases.

Three priests are facing charges in relation to sexual offences that allegedly took place at St Joseph's Institute in St Venera some 20 years ago. A fourth priest, also being accused by the men, has never been questioned by the police or the Curia's Response Team.

The alleged victims, 11 in total, have severely criticised the Church and police for failing to act at once against the priests in question, and have also pointed fingers at the courts for delaying proceedings.

The superior general of the Missionary Society of St Paul, responsible for the running of the institute, insisted that neither the society nor the Curia put any of pressure on the authorities to stall justice.

When contacted, Mgr Scicluna confirmed he would be holding individual private meetings with all of the alleged victims in the coming weeks.

These meetings, he said, would provide him with direct information, which would supplement the work done on the case by the Curia's Response Team.

However, Mgr Scicluna pointed out that the Archdiocese of Malta was still mainly responsibility for the investigation. Following the directives of Canon Law, the Curia will then refer the result of its investigations to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"It is my hope that the full investigation of all the accusations will be concluded expeditiously," Mgr Scicluna said.

That is also the wish of Mr Grech, who said he was looking forward to meeting Mgr Scicluna during a meeting on Thursday.

"I'm not pursuing this case for anything else other than justice... I will only rest when the local Church authorities tackle our cases seriously," he said.

He referred to a recent sentence handed down to a Moroccan man - jailed for eight years for raping a 14-year-old boy in 2004 - as proof that the courts were delaying justice in their regard.

Another of the alleged victims, Joseph Magro, believes the Curia's Response Team can never be impartial. He accused the Church investigators of dragging their feet and hoping that the courts would act before the Response Team.

However, Mr Magro too is optimistic about the Vatican official's visit, saying he believes Pope Benedict XVI is determined to get to the bottom of the sex abuse claims that have dogged the Church.

Both men said they were prepared to give all the evidence of the abuse requested of them - even though they had forgiven the priests who allegedly abused them when they were teenagers.

"The past is the past - this is like a mother passing away when you're young - it's tragic, but you can't cry all your life. However, it angers me to know that the same man who inflicted this abuse on me is still wearing a priest's robes," Mr Grech said.

Mr Magro said he feared the same priest may cause harm to other youngsters - and still get away with it.