The fallout from the worst idea ever for an exclusive interview while under indictment continues. Just what Jerry Sandusky admitted to Bob Costas on national television, all of which is admissible as evidence, is enough to put him in jail for up to five years

Today saw the astounding spectacle of alleged pedophile Jerry Sandusky going on national television, while under indictment, and proclaiming his innocence to Bob Costas while acknowledging that he sometimes showered with young boys and that was probably inappropriate.

The Penn State scandal comes on top of a total breakdown in ethics and accountability in government and beyond. A Penn State grad and member of Sandusky’s foundation discusses his generation’s loss of faith in his parents’ generation.

Penn State’s football coach Joe Paterno submitted a pre-emptive retirement, effective at the end of the season, before the Board of Trustees of the university meets to investigate the case. The day before, Paterno appeared at an impromptu pep rally on his front lawn, cheering on student supporters. It’s a horrifying cap to an era of elite failure.

You are never going to be able to get rid of all sick people ever. These people find kids to victimize like that is their job. So absent a science fiction vaccine that wipes out whatever wiring flaw in people’s minds as makes them do this, what you have to have is an oversight structure with its eyes on the prize. The prize isn’t the football coach’s reputation, or the university president’s, or the football team’s, or the town’s. The prize isn’t keeping everybody quiet so that nobody at Sports Illustrated has to write anything awkward. The prize isn’t letting Joe Paterno retire quietly as a legend because legacy and winning and blah blah blah.

I wish that headline was in any way hyperbolic. And this comes out of a five-year study, not a quick answer to deflect criticism. This is the formal opinion of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Catholic Church, like its famed universities’ football teams, thinks the best defense is a good offense. In football, though, truth is not the goal or a casualty of bad playing.

The Catholic Church is really experiencing a similar decline that other respected institutions have felt in recent years. And like those other declines, it’s entirely of their own making.