VATICAN CITY
CNN
(CNN) The Vatican acknowledged on Friday that close to 400 priests left the priesthood in 2011 and 2012 because of accusations that they had sexually abused children.
That acknowledgment followed a report by the Associated Press that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked during those two years. The Vatican initially disputed that report.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican’s top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy, said 384 priests left the priesthood – either voluntarily or not – in 2011 and 2012, the last two years of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy.
In 2011, 125 priests were dismissed from ministry by the Vatican because of accusations they had sexually abused children, Scicluna told CNN on Friday, citing the “Activity of the Holy See,” a kind of Vatican yearbook. The same year, 135 priests were “dispensed,” meaning they voluntarily resigned, Scicluna said.
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