Many were pleasantly surprised by the severity of the sanctions the NCAA placed on Penn State University following the school's release of the investigation of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal by the law firm of former Attorney General Louis Freeh. The NCAA's measures evidenced an appropriately serious approach to unspeakable crimes.
At the same time, the NCAA's aggressive sanctions contrasted sharply with the lack of appropriate response to much greater crimes on the part of Roman Catholic clergy.
It made some wonder what it might look like if the Catholic Church handled its infinitely larger scandal in a fashion similar to that at Penn State.
Of course, Penn State's board of trustees had initially tried to defuse its shameful situation by having the institution's president resign and firing Joe Paterno, the football program's legendary coach.
Eventually, they even removed "Joe Pa's" statue that (dis)graced the entrance to the football stadium in Happy Valley.
But in the wake of Freeh's damning final report, the NCAA fined the university $60 million — the amount the football program takes in annually.
It ordered the program to vacate its winnings since 1998 (thus depriving Paterno of his legacy as the winningest coach in NCAA football history).
It forbade the program to extend any football scholarships for the next four years and declared all the players eligible to play elsewhere.
The football program will be devastated for years to come.
Such bold sanctions couldn't be further from the response of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to its child abuse scandal.
Instead the "old boy" defense of the institution and the members of its all-male club kicked in just as it did at first at Penn State when Sandusky's crimes initially came to light.
At the university, the wagons were circled and Sandusky mildly chided while those in charge — from the president and Paterno on down — denied knowledge or responsibility. The attitude that "boys will be boys" threatened to carry the day.
The equivalent of that attitude and (non)response still prevails within the Holy City, despite the shameful involvement of priests in raping and otherwise sexually abusing children on a worldwide scale that absolutely dwarfs anything that happened in Happy Valley.
In the face of thorough investigations by independent groups, such as the absolutely devastating indictment published last year in Ireland, the Cardinal of New York invoked the "bad apples" defense and protested that "only" a small portion of the clergy was tainted.
If the Catholic Church had responded like the NCAA there would have been the following consequences:
■ Pope Ratzinger would have resigned immediately.
■ All cardinals and bishops who had covered up the scandal would have been removed.
■ The canonization process for John Paul II would have been terminated because he played down the sex scandal. This would be the equivalent of removing Paterno's statue.
■ A commission independent of the Vatican would have been launched headed by an unimpeachable figure —- say the Dali Lama, perhaps joined by Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, currently being investigated by the Vatican.
Upon completion of its investigation (assuming it would have reached conclusions similar to the one in Ireland), the commission would have:
■ Fined the church $500 billion — the equivalent of one year of church income. The money would be used to aid victims of sex abuse and to institute programs to educate clergy about human sexuality, using the best insights of current sociology and psychology.
■ Removed from the list of authentic popes all those whose public crimes made them unworthy of the title "Vicars of Christ." Here the Borgia popes come to mind, as well as Pope Pius XII for his silence about the Holocaust. (Obviously, the process of his canonization would be abruptly ended.) This would be the rough equivalent of Penn State vacating its football wins since 1998.
■ Ended the exclusion of women from the priesthood; and seminary scholarships would be extended to women.
■ Set aside mandatory celibacy as a requirement of the priesthood.
■ Ordered a reforming church council to deal with the sex abuse and related problems, to be attended by bishops not involved in the abuse scandal and subsequent coverup.
Of course, nothing like the results just described is likely. Only the Catholic faithful have the authority to push reform.
The faithful will either wage a purposeful campaign of withholding attendance and financial support in the light of failed church leadership.
Or, the once-faithful will be driven away from the church as the realization dawns that a college sports organization possesses sounder moral character than what pretends to be the "Mystical Body of Christ."