THE UNIVERSITY AND THE CHURCH
Friday was not a good day for two venerated institutions.
In Bellefonte, PA, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child molestation and faces 60 years in prison, a virtual life sentence for the 68 year old serial pedophile. A side issue in Sandusky's case is that some folks in the Penn State football colossus either knew about or even witnessed Sandusky's transgressions and covered up the wrongdoing to protect the Penn State money machine or even legendary coach Joe Paterno's heir apparent himself. Two such officials await trial charged with lying to a state grand jury about their knowledge of Sandusky's crimes.
In nearby Philadelphia, the covering up of pedophilia was front and center as 61 year of Catholic Church Monsignor William Lynn became the first US church official convicted, not of pedophilia, but covering it up. Lynn's crime? He moved known pedophile priests to unsuspecting perishes with the explanation that they were being moved for health reasons. Lynn faces up to seven years in prison.
These two cases should teach us there is absolutely nothing inherently good or moral about any institution, regardless of how venerated. They all are merely the sum of the character and actions of their members. There is also a powerful impulse for those charged with protecting the image of such institutions, to shield them from scandal regardless of the cost to innocents brutalized by deviants within, cloaked in an almost Superman-like aura.
Hopefully, the folks currently turning a blind eye to wrongdoers within their own ranks, will look at Sandusky and Lynn cases...and finally see.
In Bellefonte, PA, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child molestation and faces 60 years in prison, a virtual life sentence for the 68 year old serial pedophile. A side issue in Sandusky's case is that some folks in the Penn State football colossus either knew about or even witnessed Sandusky's transgressions and covered up the wrongdoing to protect the Penn State money machine or even legendary coach Joe Paterno's heir apparent himself. Two such officials await trial charged with lying to a state grand jury about their knowledge of Sandusky's crimes.
In nearby Philadelphia, the covering up of pedophilia was front and center as 61 year of Catholic Church Monsignor William Lynn became the first US church official convicted, not of pedophilia, but covering it up. Lynn's crime? He moved known pedophile priests to unsuspecting perishes with the explanation that they were being moved for health reasons. Lynn faces up to seven years in prison.
These two cases should teach us there is absolutely nothing inherently good or moral about any institution, regardless of how venerated. They all are merely the sum of the character and actions of their members. There is also a powerful impulse for those charged with protecting the image of such institutions, to shield them from scandal regardless of the cost to innocents brutalized by deviants within, cloaked in an almost Superman-like aura.
Hopefully, the folks currently turning a blind eye to wrongdoers within their own ranks, will look at Sandusky and Lynn cases...and finally see.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 8:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home