"He made the remarks." - This is the core of the sentence. "..during a private meeting" modifies the sentence to describe when it happened: "He made the remarks during a private meeting." "...with a group of Latin American Catholic clerics" modified the word 'meeting', describing who the meeting was with: "He made the remarks during a private meeting with a group of Latin American Catholic clerics." 'He is said to have...' is the same as 'He is rumoured to...' ie. whatever follows is a rumour. Ex. 'He was said to have caught the biggest fish ever seen.' = 'It was rumoured, that he caught...' So rumours say that: "He made the remarks during a private meeting with a group of Latin American Catholic clerics". ie: "He is said to have made the remarks during a private meeting with a group of Latin American Catholic clerics".

"He is said to have made remarks..." Eso significa que otras personas ha dicho que él dijo algo. También puede significa que hay rumores populares (no confirmado) que él ha dicho algo. Otros ejemplos: "He was said to have been a wise man." Suposamente, según chismes, él era un hombre sabio. "I was said to be very handsome in my day." "She was said to be corrupt." Espero que este te ayude. :)