Vatican Tries to Quiet Uproar Over Gay Comment

The Vatican is working to quiet growing anger over antigay comments made by the pope's top aide suggesting homosexuality is to blame for the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals, and not the church's celibacy requirement.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (pictured), the Vatican's secretary of state, angered gay rights activists and politicians and was even condemned by the French government when he made the comments while speaking in Chile.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia," Bertone said. "But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. That is the problem."

Vatican spokesman the Reverend Federico Lombardi told reporters that Bertone was not talking about pedophilia in society as a whole and was not making any medical claims. He said Bertone was "evidently" referring to statistics supplied by the Vatican's own prosecutor handling sex abuse allegations against the clergy.

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