VATICAN CITY/IRELAND
Irish Independent
Sarah Mac Donald, David Barrett and Nick Squires
PUBLISHED 14/07/2014
POPE Francis has been called on to release further details of Vatican research into clerical sex abuse, after stating that one in 50 Catholic clergy is a paedophile.
The Pope described child sex abusers as “leprosy” within the church, adding that the offenders include “priests and even bishops and cardinals”.
In an interview with ‘La Repubblica’ newspaper in Italy, the Pontiff cited aides as saying that “the level of paedophilia in the church is at 2pc”.
“I find this state of affairs intolerable,” he said.
With Catholic clergy numbers at 414,000, more than 8,000 priests fall into this category. Estimates of the prevalence of paedophilia in the wider population range from a fraction of 1pc to as high as 4pc.
In Ireland, the total number of priests and those in religious orders is almost 5,000 including those who are sick and retired.
That would suggest the number of paedophile priests in Ireland, on the basis of 2pc of the clergy, would be less than 100.
However, this would appear to be an underestimation based on the findings of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church reviews.
But a prominent child safeguarding expert said the figure raised more questions than it answered.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, the source said the Pope’s statistic did not indicate whether he was talking about priests convicted of abuse, priests who were paedophiles, or those who targeted teens.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.