Brody's Notes... Homosexuality, Not Celibacy, Linked To Paedophilia

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone

Photo By Andrew Medichini The Associated Press 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 12 | On an official visit to Chile, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told reporters today during a news conference in Santiago that; "It is homosexuality, not celibacy, that is linked to pedophilia," he also indicated that the pope was likely to take additional "surprising" initiatives against priestly paedophilia. 

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms," he said. "The behavior of the priests in this case, the negative behavior, is very serious, is scandalous," he added.

The Vatican Secretary of State also noted that other faiths suffered from the scourge of paedophilia.

"We have statistics from the United Nations and UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund) referring to thousands of cases... and that do not speak only of the Catholic Church because it is a small percentage," he said.

Bertone noted at a news conference that Benedict had met with "many victims... and is prepared to meet others." Large-scale paedophilia scandals have rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland, Austria, the United States and the pope's native Germany in recent months.