Miami Archdiocese apologizes to Foley (so now he's a "victim")

[Tab]

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The priest whom former Rep. Mark Foley has accused of molesting him when he was a teen could face sanctions, the Miami Archdiocese said Friday while offering the embattled ex-congressman an apology for the priest's "morally reprehensible" behavior.
...
"The Archdiocese of Miami is distressed by the revelations disclosed by Father Mercieca regarding former Representative Mark Foley. Such behavior is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable," the statement says.

"An apology is due to Mr. Foley for the hurt he has experienced. While it was long in coming, with God's merciful grace this painful revelation can be the beginning of reconciliation and an instrument of redemption and healing for Mr. Foley."
...
On Thursday, Mercieca told CNN that he fondled the lawmaker as a teen, but he said it wasn't abuse because Foley "seemed to like it."

"Once maybe I touched him or so, but didn't, it wasn't -- because it's not something you call, I mean, rape or penetration or anything like that you know. We were just fondling," Father Anthony Mercieca, 69, said in a phone interview with CNN affiliate WPTV from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean.

"He seemed to like it, you know? So it was sort of more like a spontaneous thing," Mercieca told WPTV, a West Palm Beach, Florida, station.

Mercieca, however, rejected the idea that he sexually abused Foley, saying, "See abuse, it's a bad word, you know, because abuse, you abuse someone against his will. But it involved just spontaneousness, you know?"
More: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/20/foley.priest/

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. So how many other children did Mercieca molest?

If he really did this sort of thing with Foley, then there had to be others. Why isn't he coming clean and apologizing to everyone else he's hurt?

[Tab]

2. Not to defend Mercieca

who is definitely a predator, and I have no apologies for the ramifications he endures....

Mercieca himself most likely (just guessing here) is a victim himself, from another older priest when Mercieca was growing up.

My objection was that Foley is being painted as a victim, as if that absolves him from any responsibility. It does not. They're trying to put the focus on the priest, when the fact is that we have a congressman - leading a committee against child abuse, for goodness sake - abusing pages, but shifting the story to some 40-year-old abuse. I understand the long-term effects, but the lead story is Foley, not this priest in Gozo or wherever.

[uppityperson]

3. "spontaneousness" means not against a minor's will so is ok?

This guy has a real problem. I think he needs lessons in what sexual abuse means, and the fact that sex with a minor is illegal.

And, any media coverage on Foley keeps him in the eyes of the people which is good, even pathetic attempts to victimize him. So what if he was abused, raped, beaten, starved, anything bad (not saying he was, but even if he was)? That does not mean he is not responsible for his actions as an adult.

[Demit]

4. Men in power positions who think their victims "like it"

are utterly disgusting.

Yes, Foley was a victim then. He grew up to be an abuser in the same way. He's not a victim now. This only partially explains his behavior. It doesn't excuse it.

[maddezmom]

5. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2573587