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Pope Francis reportedly states 'even bishops and cardinals' have paedophile tendencies
Pope Francis has said there was "reliable information" collated by Vatican officials to suggest that around two per cent of clergy had paedophile tendencies, including "even bishops and cardinals".
"That figure should reassure me but it does not at all. I regard it as very serious. I find it unacceptable and it is my intention to confront it with the severity that it requires," he said in a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, an Italian daily He likened to paedophilia to "leprosy", admitting that it was a problem for the Catholic Church.
But he downplayed the extent of the scandal, pointing out that most sexual abuse of children was committed by family members or close friends.
The Vatican later backtracked on the interview, claiming the Pope had been misquoted. He had not said that cardinals were involved in sex abuse, Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said.
The quote about cardinals "has attracted a lot of attention but cannot be attributed to the Pope," Rev Lombardi said. The Pope has recently stepped up his condemnation of sex crimes committed by clergy, after saying comparatively little on the subject for the first few months of his papacy, which began in March 2012.
On Monday he met a group of sex abuse victims for the first time. They consisted of two Britons, two Irish and two Germans. The pontiff begged their forgiveness on behalf of the Church and condemned what he described as "execrable acts of abuse".
In the interview, the 77-year-old Argentinian pontiff admitted that there were priests in the south of Italy who were much too close to the Camorra, 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra mafias.
The procession, which was led by a local priest and featured a statue of the Madonna and Child, paused beneath the window of Giuseppe Mazzagatti, 82, a convicted murderer who is under house arrest, in the town of Oppido Mamertina on July 2.
"Some priests tend to overlook the mafia phenomenon," the Pope told the paper.
The act of homage to the convicted mob killer came barely two weeks after Pope Francis travelled to Calabria and announced the excommunication of mafia criminals.
Read the original news story here:
Pope Francis: 'two per cent of clergy had paedophile tendencies'
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
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