More Ethical Than the Pope, by Leon J. Podles, The Dialogue, November 10, 2011

More Ethical Than the Pope

By Leon J. Podles
The Dialogue
November 10, 2011

http://www.podles.org/dialogue/more-ethical-than-the-pope-514.htm

The Board of Trustees at Penn State University has fired both the president Spanier and the legendary coach Paterno for their failure to act legally and ethically in handling the allegations of child abuse against Sandusky.

Note the contrast to the Vatican, which has NEVER removed a bishop for similar failures.

The behavior of the coaches and administrators is eerily parallel to the behavior of the clergy, which perhaps shows that general institutional dynamics are at work, rather than causes (such as celibacy) unique to the Catholic clergy.

When I was a federal investigator during security clearances, I noticed that the standards for janitors in sensitive installations were higher than the standards for Catholic priests. Even then, the type of behavior that was tolerated by the Church would have gotten a janitor fired immediately.

My wife also noticed how molesters like to taunt the public by half-revealing their activity. Bruce Ritter at Covenant House used to write fund-raising newsletters in which he described the bulges in the tight jeans of teenage male prostitutes. Sandusky gave his book the title Touched. He knew that administrators at Penn State were aware of his criminal activities and basically did nothing to stop him. Manipulating the administration was an additional pleasure.

A large number of students rioted at Penn State IN SUPPORT OF PATERNO. Congregations have applauded their molesting pastors. Administrators in church and state did not act to protect children in part because their publics were willing to tolerate child rape in order to keep something else: an entertaining priest, a winning coach.

About 2,000 people gathered at Old Main and moved to an area called Beaver Canyon, a street ringed by student apartments that were used in past riots to pelt police, Fox affiliate WTXF-TV reported.

The disorder escalated after the school’s board of trustees held an emergency meeting Wednesday night and later announced that they had dismissed Paterno, the longest-tenured coach in major-college football, and Graham Spanier, the school’s president for the past 16 years.

Both were ousted by a board of trustees fed up with the damage being done to the university’s reputation by a child sex-abuse scandal involving Paterno’s one-time heir apparent, Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period through a charity he founded for at-risk youth.

Ambrose Bierce had too high an opinion of humanity.