The uproar caused by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, has let the Vatican put its other foot in its mouth.

A few days ago Bertone stated that “there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia.”

Putting the blame on homosexuality while exonerating celibacy brought criticism from everywhere. The Vatican decided to explain.

A BBC article lays out the Vatican explanation.

“According to the satistical data collected by the Congregation for the Doctrine the Faith, ‘about 10% of cases were paedophilia in the strict sense, while 90% were cases of ephebophilia [the sexual attraction in adults to adolescents]’, he added.

“‘Of these approximately 60% referred to individuals of the same sex and 30% of heterosexual character.’”

That’s it. Those priests aren’t pedophiles. They are ephebophiles. They aren’t after 10-year-olds. Their attraction is to 14-year-olds and mainly boys at that. That is why homosexuality is to blame.

This is not the first time the Vatican has sought to explain their priest problem not as pedophilia but as an attraction to adolescents. They said almost the same thing last year.

What is really the difference? Young lives are destroyed either way. The Vatican needs to quit trying to hide an ugly problem and just fix it.