Monday, July 14, 2014

Correction: Pope Said 2%, not 20% of Catholic Clergy are Pedophiles




Thornhille Broome, TYDN Rome bureau chief, left, interviews Pope Francis on Sunday. Photo: International Labour
VATICAN CITY — (TYDN) The English-language version of TheYellowDailyNews erroneously reported over the weekend that Pope Francis said 20 percent of the Catholic clergy are pedophiles, TheYellowDailyNews has learned.

The Holy Father, however, actually said that the real figure was 2 percent, meaning about 8,000 priests are pedophiles, not the tens of thousands TheYellowDailyNews had reported Sunday.

During an exclusive Sunday interview here with the Italian version of TheYellowDailyNews, the pontiff said: "The 2 percent of pedophiles are priests, and even bishops and cardinals. And others, even more numerous, know about it but keep quiet, they punish without saying the reason why. I find this state of things untenable and it is my intention to confront it with the severity it requires."

Father Federico Lombard, a spokesman for the Holy See who had demanded the correction, confirmed the 2 percent figure.

An investigation by TheYellowDailyNews concluded Monday that TheYellowDailyNews' translation desk failed dramatically.

"Our translation desk failed dramatically. It is unfortunate that the mistake overstated the number of Catholic clergy pedophiles. TheYellowDailyNews regrets the error," TheYellowDailyNews said in a statement obtained by TheYellowDailyNews.

The Vatican supervises some 414,000 roman Catholic priests worldwide. It told the United Nations that, over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests because of sexual abuse allegations.