Vatican, sex and power: the real issue behind the obsession with priests’ private lives

There is an elementary principle which, in recent years, we have found ourselves having to repeat far too often: a priest’s private life is private, just like anyone else’s, and is not a matter for public discussion. It may sound obvious, yet it has to be repeated every time, because the subject greatly appeals to certain repressed individuals and, sadly, also to several priests who seem capable of little more than peering into other people’s underwear.