Just saw this article in the BBC today:
Stories like this just make me want to scream:
…
A senior priest suggested to Sarah’s mother that she go away to stay by the sea until the baby arrived and then give it up for adoption, but Sarah’s mother refused.
“So this priest decided that my father could carry on and become a priest,” Sarah says, “as long as my mother and the child - me - were in cahoots with their plan of secrecy.”
This is why Sarah was told nothing about her father as she was growing up. Later Sarah learned that he had occasionally sent her mother money.
“But the money was often accompanied by letters reinforcing the need for secrecy, saying things like, ‘If you ever talk about this or identify him as the father then the money will stop.’”
…
How did real humans decide that something like the office of priesthood was more important than all the morality the office was meant to signify?