2%

[Gob]

Pope Francis has been quoted as saying that reliable data indicates that "about 2%" of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.

The Pope said that abuse of children was like "leprosy" infecting the Church, according to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper.

He vowed to "confront it with the severity it demands".

But a Vatican spokesman said the quotes in the newspaper did not correspond to Pope Francis's exact words.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says there is often a studied ambiguity in Pope Francis' off-the-cuff statements.

He wants to show a more compassionate attitude towards Church teaching than his predecessors, but this can sometimes cause consternation among his media advisers, our correspondent adds.

[Econoline]

"Oy vey, what did I say?"

[Scooter]

That's lowball estimate. Even the Jay Report, which relied only on reported cases, that in their judgment were substantiated, and excluding any priest who died without a confession or criminal conviction, estimated that 4% of U.S. priests were child rapists. Had they extrapolated the proportion they had found to be substantiated to deceased priests, it would have been closer to 6%. If they had acknowledged that almost no one would have made such as accusation falsely, it would have been more like 8%. And of course, if one figures that there are conservatively 2 or 3 unreported cases for every one that was...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh well... U.S. priests...

[oldr_n_wsr]

It's always the USA's fault.

[Scooter]

I brought it up because it is the only study that I know of that attempted to be comprehensive. They asked every diocese to submit every claim of sexual abuse in their possession. But it did have the deficiencies I spoke of above. I see no reason to believe that the prevalence of child raping priests is any lower in the rest of the world.

[Long Run]

2% is bad enough, when you multiply it times the number of priests and the amount of damage one pedophile can cause. If the actual number is in the 5-10% range . . .