Did Pope Francis really tell a 90-year-old atheist journalist that 1 in 50 priests are pedophiles —

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/14/did-pope-francis-really-tell-a-90-year-old-atheist-journalist-that-1-in-50-priests-are-pedophiles-in-an-unrecorded-interview/

By Terrence McCoy July 14 at 12:45 AM

Pope Francis in Italy on June 21, 2014. (EPA/FRANCESCO ARENA)

No recorder. No notes. Just a 90-year-old Italian journalist’s report that the pope told him 2 percent of priests are pedophiles.

The Vatican said Eugenio Scalfari’s recent discussion with Pope Francis was a “cordial conversation to exchange ideas.”

Does that mean it was on the record?

We’re not sure. And as of Sunday morning — after the Italian newspaper La Repubblica published a whopper of a Pope interview that got the global news machine humming — such nettlesome caveats ceased being important. What mattered were the many news bombs the Pope allegedly dropped on the white-bearded journalist — a self-professed “nonbeliever” — in what may or may not have been an interview.

more at link

[djean111]

1. "a self-professed “nonbeliever”" - an odd phrase, that.

Isn't everyone, atheist or theist, self-professed? Surely this is something only oneself can profess.
No one else can say with certainty what another believes or does not believe, no matter how fervently some wish that to be true. I think wishful thinking comes into play, deciding how and if another human being believes in some sort of deity.

[cbayer]

2. This is a term I use occationsaly, to distinguish

someone who calls themselves something from those that are called that by others.

I used it recently in discussing richard Dawkins, who I fell has adopted some descriptors and owned them, because occasionally calling him these things makes people all kinds of upset.

People make assumptions about each of it, but they don't all math what we call ourselves.

[TexasProgresive]

3. To answer your question-no way to know

except if Francis says it publicly.

If Francis denies it it will not put it to rest. This is like asking a man, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Scalfari may believe that 2% of priests are pedophiles and said this to give credit to that. To me it means next to nothing. It is like a reporter saying, "An undisclosed high source says....." You only have the word of the reporter. Without corroborating sources it is meaningless.

[okasha]

4. Without corroboration,,

this is pretty much on the level of a checkout tabloid's story attributed to "a Palace Insider."

[rug]

5. The figures aren't even known in the general population, though the estimate in males is 5%.

[No Vested Interest]

6. Maybe a hearing/audiology test is in order, for both parties

involved in this conversation.

[goldent]

7. I believe he said it.

I don't think the journalist would make that up.

Of course this leads to a 1000 questions of how did he arrive at that figure, and what was the criteria for being a pedophile, etc. And of course it would be good to have the corresponding figures of the general population, to evaluate the argument that the clergy are similar to the general population.l

[okasha]

8. If the journalist's figure and rug's are both accurate,

then the incidence in the Church is less than half that in the general population.

[goldent]

9. I had the same thought and would like it to be true.

But my understanding is it is very difficult to get accurate statistics on this subject, and so it is hard to tell. What we know for sure is that it is a terrible thing that occurs within and outside the Church.

[rug]

10. This article puts the percentage of adult males at somewhat less than 5%.

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.032408.153618?journalCode=clinpsy

It's behind a paywall though.