The Vatican is doing some serious spin control after an Italian newspaper quoted Pope Francis saying “about two percent” of the clergy are pedophiles –  including clerics who’ve reached the highest levels of responsibility and authority in the Roman Catholic Church.

“Among the two percent who are pedophiles are priests, bishops and cardinals.  Others – more numerous – know but keep quiet.  They punish without giving the reason,” the Italian La Repubblica newspaper quoted Pope Francis as saying.  “I find this state of affairs intolerable.”

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi later denied that Pope Francis had said that there were cardinals who were pedophiles.  He also denied that the quoted phrases were the exact words of the Pope. 

The pontiff explained to the newspaper that the two percent estimate came from his advisers.  It would represent around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000.  Psychiatrists disagree about the number of pedophiles in the general population, but some estimates put it at less than five percent.