The Pope and Penn State

"Maybe now the Vatican will take the lead from Penn State and fire the pope." 
          A few days ago I wrote that thought on my wall over on facebook. Obviously, I meant it tongue in cheek, oops sorry, probably not the best metaphor, so let's just say I was kidding. I kid because the idea that there will be any meaningful prosecution of the Catholic Church for centuries of harboring sexual predators is highly improbable. For 2000 years, the continued silence of its leaders has effectively sanctioned the worldwide rape and sodomy of children by priests, whose victims may now number in the millions -- a crime so huge and endemic, it will never be punished except in the most superficial ways.
          Since the secret lives of priests went public and global several years ago, we've now segued into the well-publicized, predatory proclivities of a coach at Penn State, albeit aided and abetted by other coaches and the university president. None of these coaches or the president called the cops, because their responsibility to the law and the lives of those children was superseded by a cover your ass [how appropriate] mentality.       
          But, instead of considering Penn State a case of one rogue coach at one school, do the math a different way. Assume that every grade school, junior high, high school, college and university in the country has at least one pedophile coach still operating under the radar. With a minimum of ten victims each. Protected from prosecution the Penn State way. Now do the math. 
          I knew a star high school wrestler who told me his coach used his friendship with his parents to molest him. How many other parents did the guy consider his friends? This young man still couldn't tell his folks what happened, even after the guy died. So just imagine the potential number of victims out there.
          Click HERE for the best response to the Penn State fiasco. It's the best I've read castigating not only the people who penetrate the private parts of children, but the people who witness this outrage or have it reported to them, only to sweep it under the rug, the altar, the stadium, or, in my upcoming example, the cub scout tent. 
            In keeping with this ongoing theme of unreported, unprosecuted, unpunished pedophiles, I thought I would re-post a link to an article that profiles a teacher/boy scout leader who used to live in my community, a man who allegedly preyed on boy scouts and students in my area for fifty years, a couple of whom confirmed to me that he had molested them in his tent. You can read the post HERE. 
          The comments after my post of that article [which has its own comments] are interesting. Along with one notable [naive?] person who defends the teacher/boy scout leader, there are others who stepped up to say he molested them, too. Remember, this man was in scouting for five decades. Two generations. And never prosecuted. I knew boys who were in his scout pack who committed suicide as young adults. Wouldn't it be nice if the statute of limitations extended well into adulthood, so when these boys became men they could take out their anger through the legal system, instead of taking out their anger on themselves?