VATICAN CITY
Mirror (UK)
Jul 13, 2014 By Katie Davies
Many survivors of abuse by priests are angry at what they see as the Vatican’s failure to punish senior officials who have been accused of covering up scandals
The Pope today claimed around 2 per cent of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles according to reliable data.
Pope Francis said that abuse of children was like “leprosy” inflicting the church and that the estimation – which would represent around 8,000 priests out of global number of about 414,000 – came from advisers.
He vowed to “confront it with the severity it demands” and said he believed “solutions” existed to problems posed by the prohibition on priests marrying, in an interview with the Italian La Repubblica newspaper.
“Among the 2% who are paedophiles are priests, bishops and cardinals,” said Pope Francis.
“Others, more numerous, know but keep quiet. They punish without giving the reason. I find this state of affairs intolerable.”
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