‘One in 50 priests a paedophile’

Pope Francis has reportedly claimed that about one in every 50 Catholic priests is a paedophile, writes Hannah Roberts.

The Pope was speaking with Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of La Repubblica, which ran the interview last Sunday. He was quoted as saying that advisers had told him: “paedophilia inside the Church is at the level of two per cent.” That would mean there are 8,000 paedophiles among the 414,000 clergy.

The Vatican cautioned against taking all of the Pope’s reported remarks at face value. Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the published interview “captured the spirit” of the conversation with Scalfari but was not accurate in all details. Last year, the Pope had a conversation with the same journalist, and after that was published Fr Lombardi made similar remarks. In the latest interview, Pope Francis reportedly said: “Among the two per cent who are paedophiles are priests and even bishops and cardinals.” Fr Lombardi denied that he pointed to cardinals as paedophiles.