Now that Ken Carney, Phil Sofia, and Tom Diasparra have been sentenced for leading the rape and torture of younger football players in the Mepham High School football camp, I would like to ponder a few things. Am I the only one who thinks the culture these guys grew up in helped lead to this crime? I do not know the faith or upbringing of Sofia and Diasparra but I do know that Carney's father's funeral was held at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Bellmore. Ken Carney had been in trouble before and was the ringleader of the assaults. The father had been in and out of jail and died at the age of 40, rumored to be suicide due to distress over his son's crimes. I wonder if these three young men, or any others in the neighborhood ever heard anything about morality or justice or judgment. I wonder if they had been raised with a sense of right and wrong, or if they grew up hearing the “God loves everybody no matter what you do” type of theology. Quite frankly, I am not surprised at anything people do around here because I never thought Long Island had many nice people on it. That sounds harsh but truth is truth. What is worse is that Long Island has more than a million Catholics on it, meaning that the culture of the island should reflect Catholicism to a large degree. I think the failure of the Church to teach its teachings, and for us Catholics to live out those teachings, are what causes this culture to stink. And that can lead to things like Mepham, which is a real shame.