You are not going to believe this, and you should probably be sitting down right now. It’s going to rock your world and send you reeling away in disbelief: Catholic priests have been raping children and the Church has been protecting them.

The star witness in a clerical molestation case that has rocked one of the most Catholic cities in the US was going to tell a jury that his high school principal forced him to see a psychiatrist for “anger issues and fantasy stories” – or face expulsion – after reporting that a priest had raped him on campus.

I know — who ever heard of such a thing? The account goes into unseemly detail, which I’ll hide below the fold, but you will find it surprising that a priest could be so depraved. I thought they all were inspired by the spirit of Jesus. Is this what Jesus would do?

One Sunday after mass, as was his habit, the teen was working out in a weight room in St Theresa’s bell tower. Hecker showed up unannounced in the weight room that day and spoke with him about the teen’s hopes of making one of St John’s sports teams.

The priest told the child that he had heard St John would soon be starting a wrestling team. He purported to teach the teen some moves to help him make the squad. The ruse allowed Hecker to position himself behind the boy and put him in a chokehold.

Authorities would later assert that the teen felt Hecker rape him before he lost consciousness as he tried to fight his attacker off. When the teen woke up, he realized the back of his shorts were wet, so he discarded them as he went home. He said he then noticed it was much later in the day because of the way the sunlight was hitting the bell tower – and that he was alone.

I’m sure no other priest in the history of the Catholic church has committed this kind of crime. Right? Don’t tell me if there’s been one or two other cases.