Issy, it easy for the Catholic church to fudge the figures on the number of paedophiles in their ranks. Firstly when counting the number include all the nuns, they have a low instance of paedophilia. Then add in all the clergy from the big third world Catholic countries both male and female, where paedophilia is not investigated at all. In that way its easy to come up with a dodge figure like 2%.
Its not rocket science, even some dumb arse priest can do it.

Steele's figures for Australia are what we need to be looking at. The number for Australian Cardinals is 100% at the moment.

Dear Is Mise,

You asked;

"is there any valid reason to extrapolate them to the whole world?"

Well why not?

Australians may have the unenviable reputation as the nationality delivering the highest ratios of pedophiles in Thailand per visas issued.

However I think you can comfortably conclude abuse is about as prevalent within the clergy in other countries.

It should be remembered that the Church's own figures showed over 15% of priests in the Sale diocese from 1950 to 2010 had credible allegations against them. Port Pirie was 14.1%, Sandhurst in Victoria was 14.7%. Given the average time of reporting is is well into the decades it is likely there are many in the more recent years who have yet to step forward inflating those numbers. But they hardly tell the true story.

The male suicide rate in Ballarat is twice that of Melbourne and many have suggested the high number of abusing clergy such as Ridsdale is one of the underlying factors. It is likely there would be many of those victims suffering mentally who take their stories with them after ending their own lives causing under-reporting.

The Royal Commission allowed people to come and tell their stories without having to go through the police channels. For many it was the first time they had told anyone. It is from them that we get the startling figures I quoted earlier.

“Of religious orders with only religious brother members, the highest proportion of alleged perpetrators were members of St John of God (40.4 per cent), the Christian Brothers (22 per cent), the Salesians of Don Bosco (21.9 per cent), Marist Brothers (20.4 per cent) and the De La Salle Brothers (13.4 per cent).”

Why is anyone contesting the incontestable? The clerical class in this country has been extremely predatory and prolific in its abuse of our young. The rights of those innumerable victims to be heard are hardly being mentioned. Rather it is the rights of a convicted child abuser which seem to exercise so many on this thread.

Something is seriously out of kilter when that happens.

Dear Steele,

The Royal Commission looked only at Pell's sins
of omission - his failures over the years to
protect children, to discipline priests and to
comfort the abused. They did not revisit the
allegations that as a seminarian he had abused
boys at a camp in Phillip Island. In his early
days as archbishop of Sydney Pell had to stand
aside for a few months while the church examined
claims of one of the former altar boys - the verdict
of the retired judge was:

not proven, but not dismissed.

This man has sung over the years that - no sex is sacred.
that impressed John Paul II and Benedict XVI immensely.
But Pope Francis takes a rather different view:
"Behind rigidity something always lives hidden -
in many cases a double life."

The world now knows that - a little over 20 years in
Pell's first month as archbishop of Melbourne -
this scourge of sex was forcing choirboys to suck his penis!

Steele,

"Australians may have the unenviable reputation as the nationality delivering the highest ratios of pedophiles in Thailand per visas issued."

Is the definition of paedophiles based on Australian law or Thai law?

Another Catholic paedophile Fr. Michael Ambrose Endicott was sentenced to 18 months jail in Brisbane District Court. Last week Endicott was found guilty by a jury of three counts of indecent dealing with a child. Judge Leanne Clare said Endicott "deliberately manipulated a young child under his care". This grub had been in a position of trust at as a teacher and priest at Villanova College in Brisbane. There he photographed the schoolboy nude on three occasions from 1975 to 1981. Judge Clare said the offences were premeditated, protracted and caused lasting harm to the student.

Endicott had been convicted of similar offences in 2010. However The Catholic Church allowed this rock spider to phonograph children at World Youth Day. The grub is still a priest, and despite his past conviction the church allowed him free access to children, particularly young boys.

PAUL,

Sorry, I just can't resist!!

How does one phonograph small boys?

Is that some new deviation?

Incidentally, read 'The Deviationists', a lot of hard work went into it.