This wasn't just confined to priests. The entire country, if not world, thought it was treatable and confessed violators could lead normal lives just as a reformed thief might. BTW, shock treatment for some forms of deviancy are still being used, it's just that psychiatrists didn't like doing that - it considered those techniques violent. Which is fine, but not everyone yet agrees. In other words, there are still people who think it is treatable. In the old days, molesters were rarely jailed and never sued. If jailed, it was for a short time. This is simply history.