“Many psychologists and many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have shown, and they told me recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia,” the cardinal said after giving the opening talk at a meeting of the Chilean bishops’ conference.

Bertone told reporters that pedophilia is a pathology that “touches all categories of people,” including priests, but “in a lower percentage” than the general population. Still, he said, “it is very serious, it is scandalous” that there are priests who abuse minors.

The cardinal also confirmed that Pope Benedict is reviewing the church’s universal norms for handling accusations of sex abuse against clergy. He gave no details about what revisions would be made.

At a Vatican symposium on sex abuse in 2003, experts described homosexual orientation as one of many risk factors of sexual abuse, but not a direct cause of pedophilia. In describing homosexuality as a risk factor, the researchers cited the preponderance of victims who were boys; others, however, have argued that for real pedophiles, the primary factor is access to children, not whether the child is a boy or girl.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has commissioned a study, expected to be complete late this year, looking at the “causes and contexts” of clerical sexual abuse in the United States.

Presenting the preliminary results of the study, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York told the U.S. bishops in November, “At this point, we do not find a correlation between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse.”