By Julie Mack
Kalamazoo Gazette
November 12, 2011
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/11/julie_mack_column_some_thought.html
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| Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, right, and assistant coach Mike McQueary walk the field during practice, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, in State College, Pa. |
Here's a thought for people seeking a silver lining in the sex-abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University.
This week's swell of universal public outrage serves as a welcome indicator of the change that's occurred in the decade since similar scandals roiled the American Catholic Church.
It was January 2002 that the Boston Globe broke the story of pedophile priests and institutional cover-up in the Archdiocese of Boston, followed by similar stories involving Catholic dioceses across the country.
If you remember, church officials immediately went into defensive mode, and there were plenty of Catholics who were more angry at the media than the clergy. It took months, years really, to break down those defenses.
In the spring of 2002, I interviewed a priest who was being pulled from his parish because, years before, he had had a sexual relationship with teenager in his congregation. The relationship occurred when the priest was in his 30s and the boy had just turned 16.
From the priest's perspective, it was a consensual affair, a friendship that had gotten out of hand; the real problem was violating his vows of chastity versus violating the trust of a teen. The priest saw the resulting lawsuit and financial settlement as vengeful overreaction motivated by greed, and he seemed genuinely bewildered that such an episode could — and would — end his career.
On one hand, I was shocked at the priest's cluelessness. On the other, it was a time and culture when such cluelessness was rampant.
Not so coincidentally perhaps, my interview with the priest occurred about the same time as a pivotal event in the Penn State scandal. In March 2002, according to a grand jury report, a Penn State graduate assistant walked into a Penn State locker room and found retired coach Jerry Sandusky naked in the showers, raping a naked young boy.
Moreover, according to the grand jury report, this incident was the second time that a Penn State employee discovered Sandusky sodomizing a boy in the Penn State locker room. And those two eyewitness accounts came after a 1998 incident in which Sandusky admitted to showering with two young boys and washing their bodies.
In short, the case against Sandusky went far beyond mere suspicion. Yet in the spring of 2002, Penn State had much in common with the Catholic church. The abuse accusations were minimized; the alleged perp was given the lightest of sanctions; the focus was on protecting the institution versus helping the victims.
It's hard to know how the public would have responded if Sandusky's alleged abuse had come to light in 2002. Instead, it hit the news this past week. And it quickly became clear how times have changed.
Yes, there was the initial proclamation of innocence from Sandusky, as well as from the two Penn State officials charged with perjury and failure to come forward with what they knew. And, yes, there was last week's statement from Penn State President Graham Spanier, who declared he had "complete confidence" that the university had handled the situation correctly and "the charges are groundless."
What was different and surprising this time around was the immediate, visceral, universal backlash.
What also was different this time around was that, outside of Spanier, nobody this time was trying to defend the indefensible — including the Penn State trustees.
It's telling that the biggest point of controversy involved the decision to fire Coach Paterno before his last home game. Paterno, after all, had reported what he knew. And let's be honest: By the standards of 2002, that made him more hero than villain.
What the events of this week made clear is that a much higher standard now prevails. The American public has utterly lost its willingness to defend institutions and individuals accused of covering child sex abuse, who fail to protect children, who fail do to what's right.
Finally. It's about time.
Contact: jmack@kalamazoogazette.com
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