VATICAN CITY
Christian Today
14 July 2014 | Carey Lodge
Pope Francis believes “about 2 per cent” of Catholic clergy are paedophiles, according to an Italian newspaper.
La Repubblica ran a three-page ‘interview’ with the Pope, in which he referred to the abuse of minors as like “a leprosy in our home” and branded the presence of paedophilia within the Church as “intolerable”.
It is “the most terrible and unclean thing imaginable”, the Pontiff continued, vowing to “confront it with the severity it demands”.
He said his advisors estimated that 1 in 50 members of clergy were involved in child sex abuse, and – allegedly – noted that it includes “even bishops and cardinals”.
“And others, even more numerous, know about it but keep quiet, they punish without saying the reason why.”
However, a Vatican spokesperson has criticised La Repubblica for presenting the Pope’s words as an interview without quoting Francis accurately.
Father Federico Lombardi released a statement highlighting that alleged quotes attributed to the Pope “come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself”.
Lombardi refutes the claim that Francis implicated “some cardinals” in the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Church in recent years, despite the admission of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien that his “sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.
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