Pope Francis said that people who constantly criticize the Catholic church are “friends of the devil” — on the eve of the Vatican summit on dealing with the sex abuse of minors.

Speaking to pilgrims in southern Italy Wednesday, the pontiff said that the church’s “defects” needed to be denounced so that they could be fixed.

But, he said that those who repeatedly accuse the church were: “the friends, cousins and relatives of the devil.”

“One cannot live a whole life accusing, accusing, accusing, the church,” Francis said.

The comments came the day before the Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse and cover-ups by church leaders.

“This is a slap in the face to all survivors,” Judy Larson, vice president of the organization Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, told The Post.

“One the eve of a summit that’s supposed to provide the hierarchy of the Catholic Church with policies that will protect children from sexual predators, accusing survivors is unbelievable.

“[The pope] is presenting this summit as some form of hope that those who are responsible will be held accountable, at this point there is no hope with statements like that.”

A group of 12 survivors of abuse from around the world met on Wednesday with the organizers of the summit, which is set to last until Feb. 24.

One of the survivors, Pennsylvania native Shaun Dougherty, brought pictures of victims of clergy sex abuse who had committed suicide and messages from their parents to the meeting and handed them to the organizers.

“It was a very frank discussion, a lot of emotion, a lot of feelings,” Dougherty said in a video posted to The Tribune-Democrat website.

With Post wires