Vatican First Denied 400 Priests Defrocked, Then Lombardi Agreed
On Friday, the Associated Press reported a startling statistic revealed at the UN hearing that seemed to show the depth of the problem: in 2011 and 2012 alone, they wrote, Pope Benedict XVI defrocked 400 priests for sexually abusing children.
On Friday, the Vatican initially denied the report to the National Catholic Reporter, saying it was based off of an "incorrect" interpretation of the document. Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi then told the NCR that despite his earlier denial, the figure of 384 defrocked priests in 2011 and 2012 was was “correct."
As Pope, Benedict was slow to speak on the issue of clergy abuse, and could sometimes get defensive on it. As Bloomberg points out, Benedict's mixed record on the issue extends before his papacy:
As archbishop of Munich, he took part in a 1980 decision to move a priest accused of molestation to his diocese to undergo therapy, the Vatican said. As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, he didn’t reply to two letters in 1996 from a U.S. archbishop seeking action against a priest for the alleged molestation of 200 deaf children between 1950 and 1974.
Continued Here.