Responses have varied to the shocking revelations coming out of Happy Valley throughout the week as the Penn State sexual abuse scandal continues to unfold: students have rioted, former players have cried and President Obama has even let his views on the case be known.
Cathy Lynn Grossman and Johnathan Mahler have been among those who have compared the culture of Penn State football under Paterno to the Roman Catholic Church during the recent child abuse scandals. Mahler wrote in The New York Times that the similarities are "too striking to ignore."
A suspected predator who exploits his position to take advantage of his young charges. The trusting colleagues who don't want to believe it.
This was the dynamic that pervaded the Catholic clerical culture during its sexual abuse scandals, and it seems to have been no less pervasive at Penn State
David Gibson of the Religion News Service laid out three ways that the two are similar and three ways that they're different.
On Thursday night, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" addressed the scandal in his last segment and brought up the Catholic Church while discussing the Penn State students' outrage about the firing of Paterno.
"I get that it's probably hard for you to believe that this guy you think is infallible, and this program you think is sacred, could hide such heinous activities, but there is some precedent for that," he said, before a photo of the Roman Catholic Church was shown on the screen. "Yeah, and just like with the Catholic Church, no one is trying to take away your religion, which in this case is football. They're just trying to bring some accountability to a pope, and some of his cardinals, who f***ed up."
Stewart goes on to say that the students will still be able to enjoy football on Saturdays, comparing attending the games to going to services.
"No one's going to take that away. Because obviously you're young and that would be a traumatic experience. And we wouldn't want that memory to scar you for life."
WATCH: