Pope's Estimate on Paedophile Priests Only Half of Real Number, Australian Catholic Church Body Says

By Jason Om
ABC News
July 14, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-14/church-body-says-4pc-of-clergy-have-been-paedophiles/5596540

A key Catholic Church body says 4 per cent of priests in Australia have been paedophiles, double the number estimated by the Pope.

Pope Francis has reportedly described paedophile priests as a leprosy infecting the Church, saying the problem will be met with severity.

"It's a no-nonsense, a zero-tolerance attitude," Francis Sullivan from Australia's Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said of the Pontiff's approach.

"He is probably ruffling feathers within the Vatican and good on him."

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Pope Francis said 2 per cent of clergy, including bishops and cardinals, were paedophiles.

That would equate to 8,000 of the 400,000 Catholic clergy worldwide.

In Australia, the Truth, Justice and Healing Council is compiling statistics on abusers for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"It's 4 per cent of men who have been a priest in the Catholic Church at some point in Australia have been sex abusers," Mr Sullivan said.

He emphasises the statistics are historical and do not include serving priests.

Married clergy won't solve paedophilia issue: former priest

While the Pope has raised possible changes to celibacy rules to address the paedophilia, Mr Sullivan says rules on marriage and celibacy should be treated separately.

"The issue about child sex abuse is an issue that needs to be dealt with specifically," he said.

"The pathology that drives it, the sickness around it needs to be dealt with specifically."

Former Catholic priest and religious commentator Paul Collins agrees.

"I'm very strongly in support of married clergy, but I don't think that that necessarily solves the paedophilia issue," he said.

"In any given population there's going to be a small number of people who are sexually attracted to children."

Mr Collins says the Church needs a more rigorous process to screen trainee priests.

The Vatican has moved to distance itself from the Pope's interview, questioning the accuracy of the newspaper report.