One in 50 priests pedophile: Pope

A new shocking revelation shows one in every 50 priests is a pedophile.

The revelation was made on Sunday by Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, which quoted Pope Francis as saying that two percent of Catholic priests as well as bishops and cardinals are pedophiles.

According to the most recent statistics from the Vatican, the figure represents around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000.

In an interview with the daily, the Pope condemned child sex abuse as a “leprosy” within the religious body.

Francis has come under increasing fire for perceived inaction on the part of the Vatican in addressing the problem. Earlier in April, he issued an unprecedented apology for the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.