The London newspaper The Guardian has reported the Vatican’s extraordinary response to IHEU criticism, lashing out “at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis, by saying the Catholic church was ‘busy cleaning its own house’ and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger.” The newspaper reported a “defiant and provocative” statement in which the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males. The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, went on to claim that “only” 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.
You can read the full report here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/28/sex-abuse-religion-vatican