June 22,
2012 was a great day for justice, both around in the world and here in the
somewhat prosaic and parochial state of Pennsylvania, USA. It was a day for making a major dent in the current
social paradigm of embarrassed silence and conspiracy to keep quiet over abuse,
for in that short, 24 hour period an incredible thing happened: two people in
power were convicted for their egregious, nefarious crimes against children. Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky and
Monsignor Lynn were both found guilty as charged in separate Pennsylvania
courts of law, the former for direct sexual abuse of children and the latter
for disregarding those acts and deliberately employing commonly known or suspected abusers near children. Two kinds of
guilt are found here: to use the words of a common Christian prayer for forgiveness, guilt “for what we have
done” (Sandusky) and “for what we have left undone,” (Lynn). Regardless of denomination or even religion, these are essential truths that should have been glaring in Monsignor
Lynn’s conscience as a Christian clergyman, and indeed in Sandusky's as well.
Yet these unspeakable acts were
allowed to happen because so many people did nothing, so many people allowed
themselves to be overwhelmed by the shamed silence created by the social taboo
of even discussing the sexual abuse they’d seen (or endured). “Evil
happens when good men do nothing.” Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary
initially did the right thing in going to his superiors about the loathsome
“shower scene” he’d witnessed of Sandusky
performing anal sex on a young boy, reporting it despite his natural embarrassment and disgust
at witnessing and relating something
like that. But his half-hearted try at
justice, no matter how well intentioned, just wasn’t enough. Children’s
physical and psychological welfare are worth more than that. He should have gone straight to the police. After informing head coach Joe Paterno and
seeing that Sandusky was still working there, Mc Queary’s resolve to do
something more should have kicked in. Why
didn’t it? Because of not wanting to lose his job in retaliation, or to
avoid being resented in the tight social circles and old boys' network that
exists in Penn State’s athletic department? Again, this is about where we place our loyalties, our priorities.
Of course,
Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno and former Penn State president
Graham Spanier are even more to blame in this matter. Emails retrieved by state
prosecutors have revealed their decision to cover up Sandusky’s actions, and
their reasons are undoubtedly monetary. Let’s face it: anyone who lives in the
USA, much less the state of PA, knows that Penn State has a lackluster academic
rating, is notoriously easy to be accepted into, and that their one claim to
fame and fortune is their football team. Sandusky was part of the recipe for their meal ticket,
and Penn State powers-that-be decided that the children could keep getting
screwed—quite literally—as long as the Penn State football team kept winning and
raking in the money. To avoid upsetting the balance of their winning
formula, allegedly paternal Joe Paterno helped Spanier and Co. to throw the
kids under the bus.
As for
Monsignor Lynn, he admittedly is partly a fall guy for the Church, in the sense
that, as in the Penn Stated debacle, there were so many others in positions of
power that knew about the abuse and did nothing. Here again, saving face for
the organization, and the good old boy clique of the clergy, was valued more
than the lives of children. Yet the State and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
simply must make an example out of him, which they did, to set the standard of
future culpability and punishment, not just for the Catholic Church, but for
any church or organization.
While
endemic in the Catholic Church, sexual abuse in churches is definitely not
relegated to the Roman Catholic Church: as an Episcopalian, I am personally
appalled that Bishop Charles Bennison of the PA Episcopal Church is not in jail
right now like Monsignor Lynn. In 2008,
Bishop Bennison admitted unapologetically to a clerical inquiry and trial that despite
the fact that he was aware years ago that his brother, also an Episcopal minister,
was having sexual relations with a 14 year old girl, he did nothing and carried
on, eventually rising the clerical ladder to become bishop as did his father
before him. (As Saturday Night Live’s Church
Lady would say, “Well isn’t that
special?”) And maybe a little too convenient.
Mr. Bennison
was initially deposed from his position as Bishop, with the conviction reading
thus, “The court finds that even today
[Bennison] has not shown that he comprehends the nature, significance and
effect of his conduct and has not accepted responsibility and repented for his
conduct …” He appealed the decision, and then suddenly was restored in
2010, to the great dismay and shock of my religious community. While the diocese states a legal technicality
caused the inexplicable, sudden decision to reinstate Mr. Bennison, it is my
belief that bribery or blackmail might well have occurred, as he is a man from
a prestigious and well established family.
Here’s something else that Lynn,
Bennison, and other clergy who profess to be Christians yet who abuse or
protect abusers should remember: “And whoever shall offend one of these little ones that
believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his
neck, and he were cast into the sea.” Mark 9:42. King James Bible.
As welcome as the June
22nd convictions are, what disturbs me is that I wonder if the
universal clamor of indignation over Sandusky’s victims and the Catholic school
victims would be as great if they had been mostly girls instead of mostly boys?
I say with great sadness that I honestly don’t
believe so. Little girls are valued less around the world than little
boys, and still bear the unpardonable burden of having stereotypes of promiscuity
projected onto them—of salaciously “wanting it” or “liking it”-- just as adult
women bear these unthinkable, unwarranted projected stereotypes. In these aforementioned cases, men could
identify with the little boys more than they could little girls, and instinctively
saw them as innocent victims, immediately sympathizing with them.
Yet when all
is said and done, June 22nd, 2012, was still a victory for children everywhere
and for adult survivors of this abuse, and helps a new paradigm to arise that
values children’s welfare over expediency and a conspiracy of silence. What needs to be done is for people to never forget and to
keep passing laws for protection of children, keep prosecuting the guilty, and
above all to remain vigilant, for this epidemic of sexual abuse of children is
a silent holocaust of its own.
