The most painful and frustrating parts of William Lobdell’s account of being a religious journalist, Losing My Religion, are the parts where he’s dealing with parishioners defending priests who have confessed to, or been convicted of, child molestation. Despite the fact that there is no little reason to doubt that the charges against their priest are true, the parishioners angrily defend him. At one point, a group of parishioners turn on Lobdell, seeing any journalist as an enemy.

I thought that such devotion could only come from a religion, but now we’re seeing something similar at Penn State. If you haven’t kept up with the news, it appears that an assistant coach of the Penn State football team, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted a number of young boys. It has been revealed that coach Joe Paterno had been aware of at least one of these assaults as early as nine years ago. After the allegation came to light, Joe Paterno was fired by the board of trustees. Now, some of the students are rioting. From the New York Times:

After top Penn State officials announced that they had fired Joe Paterno on Wednesday night, thousands of students stormed the downtown area to display their anger and frustration, chanting the former coach’s name, tearing down light poles and overturning a television news van parked along College Avenue.

The demonstrators congregated outside Penn State’s administration building before stampeding into the tight grid of downtown streets. They turned their ire on a news van, a symbolic gesture that expressed a view held by many that the news media exaggerated Mr. Paterno’s role in the scandal surrounding accusations that a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted young boys.

“I think the point people are trying to make is the media is responsible for JoePa going down,” said a freshman, Mike Clark, 18, adding that he believed that Mr. Paterno had met his legal and moral responsibilities by telling university authorities about an accusation that Mr. Sandusky assaulted a boy in a university shower in 2002.

Demonstrators tore down two lamp posts, one falling into a crowd. They also threw rocks and fireworks at the police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back.

I just can’t believe this. Personal Failure at Forever in Hell can; she lives in Penn State territory. She reports: “I am right now listening to my coworkers going on and on about how terrible it is that Joe Paterno was fired. How dare they? JoePa was at PSU for 61 years, where’s the loyalty? JoePa did what he had to do, how dare they question it? JoePa is a good man, how could they fire him? None of what is being said about him is true, journalists lie.”

Ugh.

EDIT: This image from the protest sums it up:

Ireland just gave a middle finger to the Catholic church, and it’s a bit shocked. They closed down their embassy to the Vatican because the fees were too expensive. Imagine that.

Well, and I’d guess the whole priests-raping-their-children thing might have factored into it, too.

Catholic Ireland’s stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See’s prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church’s handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy.

Ireland will now be the only major country of ancient Catholic tradition without an embassy to the Vatican. [...]

Dublin’s foreign ministry said the embassy was being closed because “it yields no economic return” and that relations would be continued with an ambassador in Dublin.

The source said the Vatican was “extremely irritated” by the wording equating diplomatic missions with economic return, particularly as the Vatican sees its diplomatic role as promoting human values.

Diplomats said the Irish move might sway others to follow suit to save money because double diplomatic presences in Rome are expensive.