The Catholic Church in Scotland has admitted it has no idea how many Scottish priests, or those working in the country, have fathered children.
But campaigners claimed children had been sent to Scotland from Ireland and England in order to hide them from parish communities who might discover their parentage.
Campaign group Coping International, founded by Vincent Doyle, who grew up in Ireland believing a priest was his godfather only to discover he was in fact his father, has warned it can drive people into “psychosis “.
Mr Doyle said: “We are supporting eight Scots.
“Eight may seem like a small number to many, but for these eight people, their lives have been hugely affected.
“They’ve been hidden, they’ve had confidentiality agreements too. They’re scared.
“We have a Scottish woman we work with who was fathered by an Irish priest.
“They moved to Scotland and hid her there and she’s been hiding ever since. She doesn’t know what to do or how to approach him.
“These people are terrified. A guy I know is suffering from psychosis, he is on the verge of schizophrenia.
“We also have a lot of children from Ireland and England sent to Scotland, who were adopted, but now, thanks to things like ancestry.com and DNA matching sites, they are discovering their roots and what s really happened.
“There are around 740 priests in Scotland every minute, but how many men have been ordained in Scotland or how many Scottish men have been missionary priests in the last 100 years?
“Therein lies the real question.
“When you take that into consideration, if only one percent of those priests fathered children, you’re talking about a surprising number.
“Globally we know of around 10,000 children in this position and that’s just the ones we know of, that’s an extremely conservative estimate.”
Two years ago, Pope Francis said he would consider allowing married men to join the priesthood, which is expected to be discussed further this year.
Mr Doyle described priests raising children as ‘clerical abuse’.
However, the Catholic Church has refuted claims that it was widespread.
A Catholic Church spokesperson said: “There is no central register of such cases and although the church would not necessarily be aware of them, there is no suggestion of a significant number. in this country.”
He also said that several priests had left the priesthood to pursue relationships and, in his view, there was no stigma around the issue.
He said: “If a priest told his bishop that he had fathered a child and wanted help to leave the priesthood and establish himself as a father or to remain in the priesthood but be able to support the child, The church would do whatever it could to support either option.
“Each year, a certain number [of priests] leave to get married.
“One left Glasgow last year, for example. In the past, this would have been considered far more outrageous and stigmatizing.
“The view now is that the church is grateful for the service you have rendered.”
