Is the Catholic Church so desperate for priests that they have a pretty unethical screening process?

In times of war, it was common for recruiters to go to jails and offer criminals the opportunity to have the crimes forgiven if they went to war and served their country. War makes people overlook things that would normally make them go, "Wtf?" Do Catholic leaders have a wartime mentality at the moment? Do they see their organization under attack from atheists, from the media and from within? Does this wartime mentality make them overlook people's shady past when they apply to join the clergy?