VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post
Pope Francis has revealed “about 2%” of clergy in the Catholic Church are are paedophiles.
The astonishing claim is a result of research conducted by the Vatican.
Speaking to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper, the Pope said the abuse of children was like “leprosy” infecting the Church that needed confronting with “the severity it demands”.
He added: “I find this state of affairs intolerable.”
The 2% figure would mean 8,000 clergy out of a global number of about 414,000 are paedophiles including priests, bishops and cardinals.
But a Vatican spokesman claimed the quotes were not wholly accurate and did not correspond exactly to the Pope’s words.
Father Federico Lombardi denied the claims related to Cardinals
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