How Pennsylvania Got It Right
It almost needs to be put as a warning, but this post will cover Jerry Sandusky, the Catholic Church and pedophilia. If you feel these are topics you cannot deal with comfortably, please tune in tomorrow. If you feel you cannot read this because they have been covered too much in the media. . .well, you're probably right. Late Friday night, former Penn State Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 of 48 counts relating sexual assaults on many boys. This had been a relatively quick trial, all things concerned, but it seemed to last forever to the residents of central Pennsylvania. It dominated the news nationally for the sheer scope of atrocities committed and the eternal questions of who knew what when and what should have been done. The OTHER ruling that came out on Friday across the state came from Philadelphia. Monsignor William Lynn was also found guilty of endangering a child, which makes it the first time that high ranking of a Catholic official was convicted of anything resembling responsibility in child molestation. Both cases involved powerful institutions with a fanatical base and charges so shocking they seemed real. And for a rarity, they both ended decently.
Jerry Sandusky was a particularly troubling case. He was a respected Penn State football coach for many years. In Centre County, Pennsylvania, this is roughly the same as being canonized by the Catholic Church. A lot of smart money said he was going to be named Joe Paterno's replacement if he ever retired. Then Sandusky retired, and Paterno, completely out of character, said next to nothing at his retirement. Sandusky still ran his charity "The Second Mile" which helped dozens, if not hundreds, of at-risk youth find a better path to a future. It also seems Sandusky was finding kids to molest there, as many have done before him. Fr. Ritter, the man who formerly an Covenant House, was found guilty of roughly the same thing; one person who volunteered for him called him "Kiddy Litter". Same basic theory applied, help youth who have no family, no friends, no support who have been victimized, then victimize them some more. Note, The Second Mile helped FAR more people than it hurt, by a margin of about 10 to 1. Of course, that means almost nothing because this isn't a numbers game. Sandusky, after his retirement, has pretty free access to Penn State facilities, which he used to help kids and help himself to kids. He had no official standing at the university, yet he was given this free reign at the university, which most students don't get. It was an abuse of power that got the way it did because of informal understandings and ingratiating himself to people in power.
And speaking of the people in power at Penn State, the question still remains about how much the pezzonovante of Penn State knew and when. The head coach, Joe Paterno, died before the trial began so we'll never really know what he knew. Others at the university have shown varying degrees of knowledge, all the way to the vice president who apparently had a file on Sandusky. It is beyond questions he was given treatment unlike any other retired person at the university. It is also beyond question why: football. No other program at Penn State draws attention like football does, and he was a high priest. An archbishop of athletics, a prelate of the pigskin in a town with one true religion. As long as he helped bring in wins, he could do almost no wrong. Indeed, he was even caught with a child and nothing happened. Why? Pure speculation, but as it keeps being pointed out, Penn State runs one of the few profitable football programs. That is, the school stood to lose money if something were to happen to him while he was a coach. Not that college sports are particularly savory anyway, but profit multiplies that effect. However, none of this was able to save him when too many sins piled up, and for that we should all be grateful.
As we should about Monsignor Lynn. He was found guilty of child endangerment but not guilty of conspiracy (relating to moving a priest around) since they couldn't make the charges on that priest stick. It is noteworthy that the underlying crime, another priest molesting a boy, was found not guilty. Lynn is basically swinging on his own for a case of endangerment when there may or may not have been endangerment. Also, the cardinal in charge of the Philadelphia archdiocese died just after being found competent for trial. He was to go on trial for a lot of child endangerment and conspiracy charges, but he died of natural causes before the trial could begin. So Lynn was all but tried in his stead and found guilty of a charge that could bring him a couple of years in prison. Prior to this, many district attorneys had been loathe to go after high ranking members of the Catholic Church for things like this because of possible political blowback. Especially in a very Catholic city like Philadelphia.
This development has left a lot of dioceses scrambling to put property and assets in the names of individual parishes rather than in its own name. Why? So when more civil suits come, and they will, it will be harder for winners to seize assets. It also, ironically, gives into a demand made decades ago which is to give local parishes more financial control over their own futures. However, this will not divide them from Rome or any diocese or archdiocese to which they belong. All this does is confuse the money trail that lawyers use when trying to tabulate assets. The main this case does is it puts a target on any high ranking cleric in the Catholic Church who may have been around for any kind of child molestation. This is a good thing. It actually puts people who were GIVING orders in the crosshairs rather than just the guys who were sick fucks committing crimes. Being sick enough to sexually assault a child is bad. Being in a position to stop them and instead aiding and abetting is actually worse. It can be argued the molester has some kind of mental disorder or something, but to be the person who shuffles these people from parish to parish so the law CAN'T get to them even if it wanted to is even more wrong. Generals are more morally culpable than sergeants, and for a very good reason.
In both cases, there were abuses of power behind the abuses of children. Admittedly, in the case of the Catholic Church there is a more storied past there, but it's still bad for Penn State. The school itself has, since this came to light, fired a whole lot of people, but they're still in for some civil suits (which will be fun to watch, what will get cut, football or academics?) and more legal fallout will be coming. They both have devoted fans who think this is a plot by someone or the victims are faking for cash or notoriety and fans who will love them and their works no matter how many children get in the way. One big difference, and this cannot be stressed enough, Penn State and its fans ACTUALLY SEEM CONCERNED FOR THE VICTIMS! Yeah. After this came to light, one of the first things, after the 10,000 person large gathering to bring back Paterno, was the 15,000 person rally for the victims. There have been massive efforts to try to prevent this wrong from happening again, in contrast to the Catholic Church, which has been content to blame victims, the media, gay people, Hollywood, Democrats, intellectuals, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and anti-Catholic bias in general. They have been unwilling, in the past decade, to put the blame where it truly lies, with molesters and those who covered it up.
And it's that difference that makes it easier to be a Penn State fan than an unquestioning Catholic.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Jerry Sandusky was a particularly troubling case. He was a respected Penn State football coach for many years. In Centre County, Pennsylvania, this is roughly the same as being canonized by the Catholic Church. A lot of smart money said he was going to be named Joe Paterno's replacement if he ever retired. Then Sandusky retired, and Paterno, completely out of character, said next to nothing at his retirement. Sandusky still ran his charity "The Second Mile" which helped dozens, if not hundreds, of at-risk youth find a better path to a future. It also seems Sandusky was finding kids to molest there, as many have done before him. Fr. Ritter, the man who formerly an Covenant House, was found guilty of roughly the same thing; one person who volunteered for him called him "Kiddy Litter". Same basic theory applied, help youth who have no family, no friends, no support who have been victimized, then victimize them some more. Note, The Second Mile helped FAR more people than it hurt, by a margin of about 10 to 1. Of course, that means almost nothing because this isn't a numbers game. Sandusky, after his retirement, has pretty free access to Penn State facilities, which he used to help kids and help himself to kids. He had no official standing at the university, yet he was given this free reign at the university, which most students don't get. It was an abuse of power that got the way it did because of informal understandings and ingratiating himself to people in power.
And speaking of the people in power at Penn State, the question still remains about how much the pezzonovante of Penn State knew and when. The head coach, Joe Paterno, died before the trial began so we'll never really know what he knew. Others at the university have shown varying degrees of knowledge, all the way to the vice president who apparently had a file on Sandusky. It is beyond questions he was given treatment unlike any other retired person at the university. It is also beyond question why: football. No other program at Penn State draws attention like football does, and he was a high priest. An archbishop of athletics, a prelate of the pigskin in a town with one true religion. As long as he helped bring in wins, he could do almost no wrong. Indeed, he was even caught with a child and nothing happened. Why? Pure speculation, but as it keeps being pointed out, Penn State runs one of the few profitable football programs. That is, the school stood to lose money if something were to happen to him while he was a coach. Not that college sports are particularly savory anyway, but profit multiplies that effect. However, none of this was able to save him when too many sins piled up, and for that we should all be grateful.
As we should about Monsignor Lynn. He was found guilty of child endangerment but not guilty of conspiracy (relating to moving a priest around) since they couldn't make the charges on that priest stick. It is noteworthy that the underlying crime, another priest molesting a boy, was found not guilty. Lynn is basically swinging on his own for a case of endangerment when there may or may not have been endangerment. Also, the cardinal in charge of the Philadelphia archdiocese died just after being found competent for trial. He was to go on trial for a lot of child endangerment and conspiracy charges, but he died of natural causes before the trial could begin. So Lynn was all but tried in his stead and found guilty of a charge that could bring him a couple of years in prison. Prior to this, many district attorneys had been loathe to go after high ranking members of the Catholic Church for things like this because of possible political blowback. Especially in a very Catholic city like Philadelphia.
This development has left a lot of dioceses scrambling to put property and assets in the names of individual parishes rather than in its own name. Why? So when more civil suits come, and they will, it will be harder for winners to seize assets. It also, ironically, gives into a demand made decades ago which is to give local parishes more financial control over their own futures. However, this will not divide them from Rome or any diocese or archdiocese to which they belong. All this does is confuse the money trail that lawyers use when trying to tabulate assets. The main this case does is it puts a target on any high ranking cleric in the Catholic Church who may have been around for any kind of child molestation. This is a good thing. It actually puts people who were GIVING orders in the crosshairs rather than just the guys who were sick fucks committing crimes. Being sick enough to sexually assault a child is bad. Being in a position to stop them and instead aiding and abetting is actually worse. It can be argued the molester has some kind of mental disorder or something, but to be the person who shuffles these people from parish to parish so the law CAN'T get to them even if it wanted to is even more wrong. Generals are more morally culpable than sergeants, and for a very good reason.
In both cases, there were abuses of power behind the abuses of children. Admittedly, in the case of the Catholic Church there is a more storied past there, but it's still bad for Penn State. The school itself has, since this came to light, fired a whole lot of people, but they're still in for some civil suits (which will be fun to watch, what will get cut, football or academics?) and more legal fallout will be coming. They both have devoted fans who think this is a plot by someone or the victims are faking for cash or notoriety and fans who will love them and their works no matter how many children get in the way. One big difference, and this cannot be stressed enough, Penn State and its fans ACTUALLY SEEM CONCERNED FOR THE VICTIMS! Yeah. After this came to light, one of the first things, after the 10,000 person large gathering to bring back Paterno, was the 15,000 person rally for the victims. There have been massive efforts to try to prevent this wrong from happening again, in contrast to the Catholic Church, which has been content to blame victims, the media, gay people, Hollywood, Democrats, intellectuals, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and anti-Catholic bias in general. They have been unwilling, in the past decade, to put the blame where it truly lies, with molesters and those who covered it up.
And it's that difference that makes it easier to be a Penn State fan than an unquestioning Catholic.
So it is written, so do I see it.