In the third of a series of interviews with the founder of La Repubblica daily, Eugenio Scalfari, a renowned journalist and public atheist, Pope Francis capitulated that nearly two percent of Catholic clergy may be pedophiles.
The church father’s estimation is an attempt at minimizing the apparent rampant problem of pedophillia and sexual debauchery in the Catholic church. Two percent of the Catholic clergy works out to approximately 8,000 individuals.
“The level of paedophilia in the Church is at two percent,” he said. “That two percent includes priests and even bishops and cardinals.
That’s 8,000 members of the church’s leadership that have or may be sexually assaulting minors and other licentious sins.
However, Francis assures that he will rectify the problem that he sees as a “leprosy” on the Catholic church.
“There definitely is a problem but it is not a major one. This needs time but there are solutions and I will find them,” he said.
The issue of clerical marriage and celibacy has been under review lately and seems to be on the table for possible revision. However, whether the Catholic church will hold the individuals within the Church responsible remains to be seen.
