Vatican tries to quell uproar over gay comment

The Vatican on Wednesday tried to defuse growing anger over remarks by the pope's top aide that the problem behind the pedophile priest scandals is homosexuality and not the church's celibacy requirement.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Holy See’s secretary of state, outraged gay advocacy groups, politicians and even the French government with his remarks Monday in Chile.

“Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia,” the Italian cardinal 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”, AP reports.

The French government has condemned remarks by a top Vatican official linking the pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church to homosexuality, Voice of America reports.