Over 400 priests were defrocked by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI , during his term, for their involvement in child sex abuse which was the first largest excommunication series in the history of Catholic church.

The same legacy has been followed by Pope Francis who came out strongly against "evil-priests" last week. He dared taking actions against Bishops and Cardinals who tried to cover up the child sex abuse cases and admonished by demoting many of them.

In a recent conversation with the founder of the Italian daily ‘La Repubblica’, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis touched upon a series of issues including pedophilia in the church, the mafia, the education of young people and knowledge.

Last month Pope Francis excommunicated the Italian mafia groups while delivering a speech in the town controlled by a mafia group. He showed the courage to expel the mafia by proclaiming his decision in their own land of operation. It was the strongest condemnation of organized crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practicing "the adoration of evil" and saying that "mafiosi" were excommunicated, and they did not belong to Catholic Church. Pope's words are equivalent to canonical process of excommunication, which is often a long process.

During his recent conversation with journalist Scalfari , Pope Francis admitted that 2% of Catholic priests are pedophiles, which was a secret Vatican never released officially. According to Vatican's census there are 414,000 catholic priests across the world. It means 8000 catholic priests (which may include Bishops and Cardinals) are pedophiles who have the psychiatric disorder of abusing children sexually.

Last week (Monday July 7th) Pope Francis prayed with victims of pedophile priests, begged for their forgiveness and vowed that the church will “weep and make reparation” for these long-ignored crimes.

Holy Father celebrated private Mass with six European victims, healing wounds created by the church’s inaction against sexually abusive clergy. “I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately,” the pope said.

Pope Francis met the victims on Sunday night— two each from Britain, Ireland and Germany — before celebrating Mass on Monday. He later met them individually at his apartment to hear their painful experiences.

The report released by Vatican says Pope Francis expressed “sorrow” for the “sins and grave crimes” perpetrated by pedophile priests.

“For some time now I have felt in my heart deep pain and suffering,” Pope said.

The church “betrayed” the faithful by failing to act against sexually abusive priests, Pope Francis said.

“I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent persons,” he said.

“Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.”

In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI also acknowledged that the Catholic Church was responsible for the high level of clerical abuse within its institutions.