JoePa, Penn State and the Catholic Church

Does anybody else get the feeling of deja vu over the Penn State scandal?  From what I can guess, Paterno likely heard about the investigation into Jerry Sandusky's actions with a child in 1997, encouraged him to retire and hoped that it was a one-time action.  Much like the Catholic Church, where the bishops seemed to hope that an accusation against a priest was a misunderstanding or a one-time thing, Paterno took the minimal action in 2002, when disregard of the previous event would make he and the University more liable.  Common sense and decency would indicate at a minimum in 2002 that the police should be notified.  A reliable witness can testify to actually seeing the crime.  Unfortunately, much like the Church, it appears that concern about protecting a friend, along with protecting his personal and his employer's reputation, left a criminal on the street to commit more crimes.  It would be bad enough that Paterno took no further action in 2002, when he had an eyewitness to a crime, but if he knew about the previous investigations in 1997 and 2000, and still did nothing other than pass the news up the chain-of-command, he seriously failed.  Engaging in a coverup makes someone criminally liable, while putting off the damage until it is much worse.  The Catholic Church has found this out, and now it looks like Joe Paterno and Penn State are learning it too.  It is a pretty sad way to end an otherwise honorable career.