A Vatican spokesman has claimed that a Papal interview in La Repubblica magazine did not represent Pope Francis’ exact words.
The Vatican is refuting a story published by the magazine in which Francis is quoted saying that about 2% of the clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.
The deepening row between La Repubblica and the Vatican, comes after outrage followed Sunday’s publication of an interview between Pope Francis and Editor, Eugenio Scalfari.
Scalfari is known for not using a digital voice recorder during interviews and for not taking notes.
The Vatican says Pope Francis never checked the accuracy of the interview prior to publication.
In the article, the Pope is quoted as saying that the two per cent estimate came from his advisers.
If true it would mean that 8-thousand priests out of a global number of about 414-thousand were paedophiles.
