VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican office that handles clergy sex abuse is looking for help to process what a top official says is a steady stream of cases that arrive every day from around the world.

Monsignor John Kennedy, head of the discipline section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a conference of Catholic journalists this week that while his staff has more than tripled to 17 full-time experts in the past 15 years, he still borrows four others occasionally and is looking for more.

Pope Francis has lamented the slow pace and backlog of priestly sex abuse cases, which at one point had reached 2,000.

Kennedy said the foundation named for the congregation's former head, who became Pope Benedict XVI, had offered to pay for a statistical analysis of cases.