Norwegian Priest Calls for Public Brothel

OSLO — A Norwegian priest, fed up with having his neighborhood invaded by massage parlors selling sex, has called for a public brothel to be opened.

“We must get a brothel under public supervision in central Oslo,” the priest, Knut Sand Bakken, was quoted as saying in Friday’s edition of the daily Verdens Gang.

“The best solution is a society with no prostitution, but history shows this is not possible. Therefore, we have to choose the second-best--and that’s having a public brothel situated outside residential areas,” he said.

Such a brothel should be under supervision of police and health authorities, said Bakken, who has often demonstrated against dubious “massage institutes” in Oslo’s residential St. Hanshaugen area.