The 4 P's: Priests, Pedophiles, Penn State and Paterno

Catholic schools encourage vocations. They also encourage missionary work. Very often parishes and Catholic schools bring in speakers to that end.

When I was at Our Lady of Victory Academy the sisters brought in a local missionary to speak to us at an assembly.  He was dynamic. He was engaging. He was inspirational. One of the reasons I gravitated towards attending Manhattan College was because of this speaker—the school was the root of his ministry. The speaker founded Covenant House—a charity for teenage runaways.  The founder’s name was Father Bruce Ritter. He was a Catholic priest. He was also a pedophile.

I am not a big fan of Nancy Grace. When she was voted off of Dancing with the Stars this week I was not unhappy. I find her in general to be too abrasive and too quick to judge. But when she was interviewed today on Good Morning America  I was in full agreement with her. The topic regarded the recent Penn State scandal. Her point was that very often people have misplaced loyalties. Instead of outrage over young children being irreversibly scarred at the hands of a pedophile, people sympathized with the enablers. People sympathized with the coach and staff who protected the pedophile.

The Penn State scandal is multilayered. But when the onion is peeled away we are left with this simple truth: children were sexually abused. That is not acceptable—ever. And if you look at the big picture, other children/young adults will suffer in the aftermath of the scandal. The kids who were recruited to Penn State will lose instruction. Many of them intended to become professional athletes—many of them needed football to pay for their education. Their opportunities may be altered.

And the revenue from the Penn State Football machine funds scholarships and programs for students other than athletes.The scandal will most certainly negatively impact the lives of many. The ripples will be far and deep. It is all so sad. It is all so shameful.

When I heard many years ago that Father Bruce Ritter engaged in homosexual relations with the very children he was charged with protecting,  I was in shock. I was so glamoured by the priest's good works that at first I felt anger towards the accusers. But I quickly realized that my sentiment was misguided. My loyalty was misplaced. In some way I too suffered abuse---I was a victim of fraud.

Robert Morganthau, the district attorney of NYC at the time, did not prosecute Father Bruce. And other than request his resignation from Covenant House, the Catholic Church did nothing either. Father Bruce died quietly of cancer shortly after the scandal. In my eyes, justice was never served.

And while it is sad that Joe Paterno was fired and his pristine reputation is now tainted, he is not the victim—the children are. And Nancy Grace is correct—if news vans are to be overturned in protest over the scandal, it ought to be over the lost innocence of children, not the career of a football coach. Voice should be given to the victimized children, not the men who enabled a pedophile.