The whole world, it seems—and that includes many unbelievers—have worked themselves into a frenzy of adoration toward Pope Francis. He’s such a humble man, they say, and he wears regular shoes! He lives in a tiny apartment instead of the fancy Vatican digs of his predecessor.

Those people were always fooling themselves, for the Pope must uphold one of the world’s most autocratic (and harmful) faiths, and he wouldn’t be Pope if he were going to fundamentally change Church dogma.

Sure enough, as reported by the BBC today, Pope Francis is reacting to the UN’s report (which faults the Church strongly and urges immediate action to root out sexual deviants from the clergy), with anything but humility. Pope Francis has strongly defended the Roman Catholic Church’s record on tackling sexual abuse by priests. In a rare interview with an Italian newspaper, the Pope said “no-one else has done more” to root out paedophilia. He said the Church had acted with transparency and responsibility, yet it was the only institution to have been attacked.

And who else was supposed to be attacked?

In his interview with Corriere della Sera published on Wednesday, Pope Francis said: “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility. “No-one else has done more. Yet the Church is the only one to have been attacked.” The Pope, who will celebrate his first anniversary of his election later this month, also praised his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, for changing the Church’s attitude towards predatory priests, saying he had been “very courageous”. He also questioned the focus of the debate, saying: “The statistics on the phenomenon of violence against children are shocking, but they also clearly show that the great majority of abuses are carried out in family or neighbourhood environments.”

What kind of statement is that? That Church had institutionalized pedophilia, knew of the problem, tried to sweep it under the rug, and was called out for it. And the Pope tells us: “It’s not that bad: after all, more child abuse occurs outside the church than within it.” Is that supposed to absolve his Church of responsibility? It’s the worst possible thing he could have said, and it’s dripping with arrogance and insouciance.

“The Pope may make this statement, but then the Vatican doesn’t reply to the UN or impose the obligation that bishops should denounce accused priests in the courts and not deal with the cases internally.” The founder of the US-based website, BishopAccountability.org, Terence McKiernan, was more direct in his criticism, complaining that the Pope had not merely failed to apologise to the children who had been abused but had not even expressed sorrow. “It is astonishing, at this late date, that Pope Francis would recycle such tired and defensive rhetoric,” he said.

Meet the new Pope—same as the old Pope.