Penn State Latest

no wonder joepa turned a blind eye. he learned that shit in sunday school.

 

No, but my wife was on the south side of Chicago. She finally had enough, and we left the church four years ago for the United Church of Christ. We were back at our old church recently for my mother-in-law's funeral, and there was nothing about the service that told us we made a mistake by leaving.

On another front, a Pennsylvania school is making sure there are no Jerry Sandusky incidents by building separate shower facilities for coaches and referees, apart from students.

http://triblive.com/news/washington/2510151-74/facilities-separate-shower-district-bentworth-baker-sandusky-state-superintendent-adults#axzz257oYLwvJ

Do that many schools have kids shower together anymore? Boy, that question sounds creepy. What I mean is, in my kids' schools, no one showers after gym, or after sports. You change clothes, but you shower at home. Personally, I have no problem with this.

 

In my public high school more than a decade ago, no one used the showers. They eventually were used for high jump mat storage.

But at the Catholic high school in which I worked within the past few years, pretty much everyone showered after gym or after practice. Coaches and officials had separate showers in the offices, however.

 

I went to (Catholic) junior high in the early 70s and (public) high school in the mid-70s.

You were expected/required to shower after gym class or sports, under the fully valid reasoning you would stink like hell if you didn't.

I never once saw a coach or teacher in there, except maybe once or twice, fully clothed, to break up some (yes) "horseplay" (as in towel-snapping, fighting, chasing people around on soapy floors, etc). The coaches had their own showers in the coaches' offices. Never saw a coach dressed in anything less than sweats.

We did joke that some of the old gaffers they had hired as "locker room attendants" to hand out towels were just there to look at naked boys, but as far as I heard none of them ever did anything out of line.

Even back in those soapy slippery days of the 70s, a naked adult coach leading a naked boy into the showers would have raised ALL SORTS of screaming sirens. The idea this was passed off as completely normal at PSU is, well, weird.

 

Not playing devil's (HA!) advocate here, but is there any chance that they're sensitive to the "privilege" question? Isn't it the case that confession is the ultimate privileged conversation? So to participate in an "outing" of a priest/pedophile would potentially put a priest in conflict with the agreement he's made with a "higher authority"? Again, not taking this position, but is it possible that some of them would?

 

One of the fundamentals tenets of the church is forgiveness. Now, that's not the same as ignoring wrongs. But it does mean that a person who has made a mistake doesn't need to be tarred and feathered over it. There's enough of society doing that already. If the church takes that position, what makes it any different from the rest of society?

If priests didn't believe the church "had their back", then, yes, I suspect a lot of them would leave.

 

Oh Mark, you never fail to entertain.

 

Actually 'forgiveness' and 'tarred and feathered' are not mutually exclusive in Catholicism. See "Inquisition, The Spanish."

 

Kind of a stretch to blame today's Catholicism for yesterday's Inquisition, don't you think? Especially when yesterday was not less than 200 years ago?

 

I was making an historical joke about forgiveness and tar and feathers.

 

True, given how far the Catholic church has come in regards to its respect for social and civil rights for all.