Joe Paterno’s lapse

Yes, and maybe add, . .. a son who was 10 years old. Even so, it just makes me more sad than angry, as it does for most of the people I have heard from. Sad for the victims certainly, but all the students, fans and alumni. Even Joe Paterno and all the others may really be “good guys” who were simply terrified (in denial) of a scandal that would blemish the great image of Penn State, which would reduce football receipts, hinder recruiting of students and athletes, break the budget. I am not the first to see the analogy with my own church, the Catholic church. Bishops and priests and lawyers were also “good guys” who protected sexual predators and risked other victims to protect the great image of the church, its moral credibility, its significant income and assets.

Now both camps lie in ruins, not simply because of the horrific details, but the compounding of the crimes by an obvious focus on protecting the institution at the expense of victims. Same old story and one bound to be repeated by a culture that values image and money and influence and perks and privilege and power and entitlement over the much lesser interests of the poor, the “underprivileged”, and the vulnerable. Penn State and the Catholic Church, exist, on paper, to support the needs of people, their students and congregants. They have both gotten way off track. It is the old problem of whether the person exists for the benefit of the state or the state exists for the benefit of its citizens. Why do we always miss that? Our culture, I suspect.

If “the business of America is business”, then the corporation, as the business model of choice, is central to our way of thinking and being. In our version of the corporation, everyone exists to serve it; employees, boards, executives, clients, consumers, even corporate investors (where personal and corporate benefit are conjoined). It is, in this regard, the corporation is more godlike than any church because it does not merely claim to represent God but to be one.

So, when Penn State or the Catholic church (or any other institution) becomes a “corporation” it expects everyone to serve, to have employees “fall on their swords, if need be, to protect and defend it.. We are employees, servants, and mere functionaries for institutions that are far greater than any of us. Our identity, worth, security, and loyalty tends to be bound, not to any individual or even to ourselves, but to the “far greater” corporations we serve.

Perhaps the, otherwise understandable, identifications that “We are Catholic” or “We are Penn State” are a little off the mark. Maybe we should be “persons” first who then choose the Catholic faith and give it the distinction of becoming “our faith” , or persons first who then choose Penn State and gave it the honor of becoming our “Alma Mater”. It is then that the church becomes a community of believers and Penn State becomes a family.

Penn State, the Catholic Church, and thousands of other “modern” corporate institutions, and “brands”, need to take a hard look at how we got into this religion of size, power, influence, image, market share, growth strategies, and, instead, look for a different model, where success is measured by the simple and real service they render to individual persons. If we did, we may be less inclined to choose the interests of the corporation over those of beautiful, unknown, innocent, poor, and vulnerable, ten year old boys.