Much like the way Bogart and Bergman always had Paris in "Casablanca," Bill Buscetto will always have this: He's the first guy in the history of everything to get the Catholic Church to almost admit it was wrong.

Buscetto, run out as athletic director and baseball coach at St. Bernard in June, declined an "offer" to return to one of his two former posts earlier this week. The very idea that poohbahs within the school and the Norwich diocese offered even a few breadcrumbs to Buscetto indicates their awareness of this episode's absurdity.

The diocese teaches Isaiah 1:18 that begins, "Come now, let us reason together." Too bad Isaiah 1:18 isn't applied.

A personality conflict and subsequent act of vindictiveness by an outgoing headmaster is no reason to fire someone. Especially at a place purporting to teach human decency. School officials made Buscetto an "offer" that was barely nominal, more valuable for its rhetorical usefulness than practicality. It included a pay cut, no chance at the baseball job, but a chance for the poohbahs to say, "hey, we offered and he declined."

Throughout this charade, readers have asked about the "real" story. As in: There's got to be more to this than a personality conflict and the ill-advised emails Buscetto sent to team parents. Figure it out for yourselves: If Buscetto had done something egregious enough to get fired, would school officials have asked him back at all? I'm thinking not. But nothing really happened here. Yet in the name of saving face, school officials and the diocese just couldn't admit that a mistake ballooned into a charade.

Buscetto is not the only victim. What of the students, parents, teachers, coaches and alumni who so passionately supported him? The "offer" to Buscetto suggests their pleas were given cursory attention, if that. So I ask: If such people, the ones who form the heartbeat of St. Bernard, are summarily ignored by the monarchy, what is the point of the school's existence?

I ask that with more confusion than moral outrage. Turns out the people who attend the school, write the tuition checks, teach the students, coach the players and send in donations have no real seat at the table. Hence, how can that estimable list not feel some serious erosion in any beliefs of what St. Bernard stands for?

Bill Buscetto's greatest strength, passion, is his greatest weakness. His decision to send the infamous emails to team parents merits a letter in his file and a warning that it better not ever happen again. Otherwise, Buscetto should remain as the school's pied piper. St. Bernard needs one.

Because if you haven't noticed, there's really no need for the school's existence. Clearly, it is run by a dictatorship that cares more about image than people. More importantly, though, it is surrounded by several solid public school systems that can educate the masses quite capably.

Catholic school folks like to tell you about the superiority of the education. I know. I used to spew the same stuff. But look around. St. Bernard is going to educate a kid better than, say, Norwich Free Academy with its college setting, diversity and excellent academic reputation?

I'd say virtually every public school system in St. Bernard's shadow is good enough for families to forgo tuition payments to a dictatorship. Is being told you don't count worth 10 grand a year?

St. Bernard will always have its defenders. But what will befall The School On The Hill is a lot like tooth decay. It'll get a little worse every day, every year until one day you look up and it's irreparable.

And it could have been avoided.

When backbones of the place such as Art Lamoureux and Jim Leone, two of the most decent people who ever took up the noble act of teaching, lament the school's decision, plenty of evidence exists to suggest the decision was wrong. You can dislike Buscetto's surname. You can dislike his hard edge. But you can't argue with his results. Or his passion for St. Bernard.

Now it's gone. The school won't be far behind.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.