Leslie Lothstein at the Institute of Living in Hartford CT has treated many sexual predator priests. In a NY Times article, he said:
“I had predicted 15 years ago that this would go up to the pope.”
“It was a surprise for me to see how many psychopaths I met in the priesthood, Glib, callous, could say anything to you and be charming.”
“And I treated half a dozen priests who fathered children, I treated priests who had two children. I treated priests who got women pregnant and got them abortions. I said to one of them, ‘Why didn’t you just use a condom?’ And he said, ‘Because birth control is against the law of the church.’ ”
“I found that [the Church] rarely followed our recommendations, They would put them back into work where they still had access to vulnerable populations.”
Shock horror, priest do odd things!!! Why the surprise, step back and take a cool look at them. They are odd people, they dress in a rather strange fashion, they utter strange things based on some weird writings of a Middle Eastern nomadic tribe from more than 2000 years ago and expect you to live your life the way these odd writings dictate. They think their bossman has a direct line to an imaginary friend some where out yonder. They tell us we are all born with sin are are therefore miserable creatures. Pour that lot and a host of other weird and wonderful behaviour into a human being and expect them to behave like a normal human? Think of the misery they have created across the world with one religious mob killing another to prove they are they true followers of the only god. Think of Mother Teresa slithering through poor and down trodden of India trying to get them to abandon birth control and accept their poverty. How can we possible expect anything except the bizarre from them. They can’t be measured by normal standards, they so far removed from that very wide spectrum called normal. The institution attracts that type of odd ball, it is their place of security, their home among their own kind.