Image copyright AFP Image caption Earlier this month the Pope begged forgiveness from victims of child abusers within the Church 
 
 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. 
 
 Analysis: David Willey, BBC News, Rome 
 
 When is a papal interview not an interview? Sunday's edition of La Repubblica devotes its first three pages to an account of a conversation between Pope Francis and editor Eugenio Scalfari, which took place last Thursday. Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a sharp note that it was not an interview in the normal sense of the word, although he admitted it conveyed the "sense and the spirit" of the conversation. 
 
 Mr Scalfari does not use a digital recorder, and Father Lombardi said Pope Francis never checked the accuracy of the interview. 
 
 Until now, the Vatican has declined to quantify the extent of clerical sexual abuse scandals in the worldwide Church. Statistics are usually available only for countries in the developed world. In the developing world, information is usually only sketchy. 
 
 In the interview, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that the 2% estimate came from advisers. It would represent around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000. 
 
 While the incidence of paedophilia as a psychiatric disorder in the general population is not accurately known, some estimates have put it at less than five percent. 
 
 "Among the 2% who are paedophiles are priests, bishops and cardinals. Others, more numerous, know but keep quiet. They punish without giving the reason," Pope Francis was quoted as saying. 
 
 "I find this state of affairs intolerable," he went on. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Many Catholics feel the Church hierarchy has not taken strict enough action against abusers 
 
 Above the interview La Repubblica ran the headline: "Pope says: Like Jesus, I shall use a stick against paedophile priests." 
 
 Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi denied that Pope Francis had said that there were cardinals who were paedophiles. 
 
 Last year Pope Francis strengthened the Vatican's laws against child abuse and earlier this month begged forgiveness from the victims of sexual abuse by priests, at his first meeting with victims since his election. 
 
 Many survivors of abuse by priests are angry at what they see as the Vatican's failure to punish senior officials who have been accused of covering up scandals. 
 
 Asked in the same La Repubblica interview about the celibacy rule for priests, Pope Francis recalled that it was adopted 900 years after the death of Jesus Christ and pointed out that the Eastern Catholic Church allows its priests to marry. 
 
 "The problem certainly exists but it is not on a large scale. It will need time but the solutions are there and I will find them." 
 
 Father Lombardi also denied that these were the Pope's exact words. ||||| 07/13/2014 
 
 Vatican spokesman issues statement contradicting words attributed to Pope by top Italian newspaper 
 
 (©lapresse) (©lapresse) Fr. Federico Lombardi 
 
 In a statement published by Italian blog “Il Sismografo”, Fr. Federico Lombardi clarifies that certain expressions “La Repubblica”’s founder Eugenio Scalfari attributes to Francis regarding paedophile cardinals and priestly celibacy, apparently never left the Pope’s mouth 
 
 FEDERICO LOMBARDI 
 
 
 
 vatican city 
 
 “In the Sunday edition of La Repubblica an article by Eugenio Scalfari was prominently featured relating a recent conversation that took place with Pope Francis. The conversation was very cordial and most interesting and touched principally upon the themes of the plague of sexual abuse of minors and the Church’s attitude toward the mafia.” 
 
 “However, as it happened in a previous, similar circumstance, it is important to notice that the words Mr. Scalfari attributes to the Pope, “in quotations” come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself to whom the words are attributed. We should not or must not therefore speak in any way, shape or form of an interview in the normal use of the word, as if there had been a series of questions and answers that faithfully and exactly reflect the precise thoughts of the one being interviewed.” 
 
 “It is safe to say, however that the overall theme of the article captures the spirit of the conversation between the Holy Father and Mr. Scalfari while at the same time strongly restating what was said about the previous “interview” that appeared in La Repubblica: the individual expressions that were used and the manner in which they have been reported, cannot be attributed to the Pope.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Let me state two particular examples,” Lombardi says in his statement. “We must take into consideration two affirmations that have drawn much attention and that are not attributed to the Pope. The first is that among paedophiles are also “some cardinals”; and the second regarding celibacy: “I will find solutions.” 
 
 “In the article published in La Repubblica, these two affirmations are clearly attributed to the Pope but curiously, the quotations were opened at the beginning but were not closed at the end. We must ask ourselves why the the final quotations are not present: is this an omission or explicit recognition that this is an attempt to manipulate some naïve readers?” 
 
 Click here to read Eugenio Scalfari's original report on his conversation with the Pope in Italian
– Pope Francis has made headlines around the world with an interview in which he said 2% of clergy, including cardinals, are pedophiles, but the Vatican says those weren't his words—and it wasn't exactly an interview. The words attributed to the pontiff in the La Repubblica newspaper came from the journalist's memory of the conversation and "the individual expressions that were used and the manner in which they have been reported, cannot be attributed to the pope," a Vatican spokesman tells Vatican Insider. He says the interview was not recorded, and the pope never checked it for accuracy. Specifically, the spokesman says, the affirmations that cardinals are among pedophiles in the clergy and that Francis says he "will find solutions" to priestly celibacy can't be attributed to the pontiff. The published remarks raised eyebrows because "there is often a studied ambiguity in Pope Francis' off-the-cuff statements," the BBC's Rome correspondent notes. "He wants to show a more compassionate attitude towards church teaching than his predecessors, but this can sometimes cause consternation among his media advisers," he says.