It was a coincidence that the report on Lance Armstrong and the response of the Catholic Church to sex abuse were prominent news stories over the same weeks. But deeper similarities between the scandals afflicting cycling and the Catholic Church may offer a broader perspective on each.
Of course the differences are much more significant than the similarities. In contrast to doping in cycling, sexual abuse creates direct victims, the devastation to whose lives is lasting and massive. The betrayal by ministers of the Church in poisoning in people the faith they are committed to nurture is also uniquely abhorrent.
But the causes of widespread abuse in the church and in cycling are similar in structure. They lie in cultures that have undermined rather than supported ethical behaviour, provided occasions for abuse, and promised impunity.
In the Church the prevailing culture commended an ethic not of responsibility but of law, paid honour to priests and religious, afforded them unregulated access to young people, and instinctively defended the institution. It was vulnerable to changing sexual mores and left people blind to the lasting harm suffered by victims of abuse.
Similarly, the ethical commitment of cyclists to refrain from taking unfair advantage in competition was weakened by the wealth and glory that flowed from doing so. The desire to protect the wealth and reputation of the cycling circuit also encouraged administrators to overlook the use of drugs. This slackness and the ready availability of new, temporarily undetectable drugs promised impunity.
The process through which public attitudes to the Church and to cycling changed were also similar. In each case reports of abuse circulated, were initially treated as random, but later led to a diffused suspicion.
The suspicion was crystallised by particular events. Widely publicised and horrific cases of abuse in the United States, Ireland and Australia led to revulsion and to the loss of trust in and within the Catholic Church. This was compounded by the failure of many church leaders to 'get it'. The Armstrong revelations have been a similar catalyst for cycling. The consequences of this broken trust for the reputation of the sport have yet to be seen.
To regain trust, both cycling and the Church have to address the culture that led to abuse, to prevent occasions of abuse, and to ensure strict accountability.
In the Church the primary challenge has been to acknowledge the lasting and catastrophic effects of abuse, and to redress the harm done to its victims. This requires truth about the past and making those responsible for abuse and its covering up accountable.
A proper response, too, must change the culture that facilitated abuse by inculcating an ethic of responsibility, by seeing bishops, priests and religious as brothers and sisters and not as lords, and by privileging truth over glory. It also means insisting on strict boundaries in relationships with young people and ensuring that abuse will effectively end ministry. All this is a work in progress.
Cycling will have the same tasks: to reinforce in riders and administrators an ethical approach to competition, to deal with the corrupt past and make people accountable for it, and to make it difficult for riders to have access to drugs in competition.
But the main challenge will be to make riders strictly accountable by ensuring they are regularly and unpredictably tested, severely penalised for drug taking, and that their financial records and those of the cycling associations are open to informed scrutiny to detect secret payments.
As in the case of the Church, the building of a culture is a long term project and will inevitably involve harshness initially.
Finally, if the Catholic experience is any guide, the loss of trust in cycling will also have lasting effects. Revelations of past drug taking and of official conniving will continue to receive publicity and will inhibit the regaining of trust. Measures taken to change the culture will long be viewed with scepticism.
Public disdain is a cold environment to live in, but its air is healthy. Lack of credence and the publicity with which public enquiries are conducted encourage self-scrutiny and the determination to prevent further abuse. They rightly forbid moving on. They also encourage humility, a rare but admirable virtue in all human beings, whether they go about in clerical collars or on two wheels.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street.