Sexual relationships not rare for some priests

LONDON — The international conference of Roman Catholic priests’ conferences in the English-speaking world has been told one in 20 Swiss priests is or has been in a sexual relationship with a woman, according to a report in the Irish Times. A Swiss priest, Jean-Pierre Brunner, told the conference meeting in Dublin that in his country a group was campaigning to allow such couples to live together openly.

Last May, the group published figures showing that 310 women with 149 children were in relationships with priests, but following publicity the number of women known to be in this situation had risen to more than 400.