The Pope has reportedly claimed that "about 2 percent" of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.
According to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper, Pope Francis has equated abuse of children to "leprosy" which is infecting the Church and said that "about 2 percent" of priests are paedophiles, the BBC reported.
However, he has vowed to "confront it with the severity it demands" and had earlier begged forgiveness from victims of child abusers within the Church.
The Vatican had so far declined to quantify the extent of clerical sexual abuse scandals in the worldwide Church.