as I live a few more questions

Hand Of God

Tonight I had the privilege of catching the broadcast TV premiere of Hand Of God, a documentary created by Joe Cultrera, the brother of a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of Joseph E. Birmingham, a pedophile priest who was simply shuffled from parish to parish, instead of being removed from service or sent for treatment (if it is possible at all to cure a pedophile).  I can completely relate to Joe Cultrera's story of childhood abuse, and how that abuse can play itself out in your life and relationships for decades afterward.  Here's the PBS page on this documentary with other documentation.  People in a position of power to stop the abuse simply swept in under the rug in an attempt to spare the Catholic church from scandal.  It is in particular a very damning indictment of now-Bishop John B. McCormack, one of the "shufflers".

The thing that shocked me the most -- shocks me to my boots -- is that alleged pedophile enablers such as priests John B. McCormack and Bernard Law not only kept their positions in spite of evidence they covered up for abusive priests, but they still serve the church, and have even been promoted over time!  (John McCormack was made a bishop, while Bernard Law received a post at one of Rome's major basilicas.  Law's fancy Vatican bio conveniently omits the pedophile priest scandal and his resignation as Archbishop.)

What sort of message does this send to the world?  Protect the Church's ass at the expense of innocent children, and you get promoted?? 

"It's not my fault! I was having a nervous breakdown/I was on drugs/you're bothering me and I'm old!"

(This post was titled deliberately so as to link it with this earlier post .)

It sems that the buck-passing on the Mark Foley page scandal never stops.  The following quotes are from an interview with Father Anthony Mercieca, the man whom Foley has accused of sexual abuse when he was a teenage altar boy:

“I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown,” he said. “I was taking pills — tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit.”...

...“Why does he want to destroy me in my old age?” Father Mercieca asked.

(Doig, Matthew et al.  "Catholic priest claims relationship with Foley", The New York Times, October 19, 2006.)

Mark Foley isn't destroying you...he's TELLING THE TRUTH (a little late, but nevertheless...).  As a Catholic priest in a position of trust, you did something wrong with an altar boy and you should admit the truth, instead of digging around for more excuses for your behaviour.  Blaming what you did on tranquilizers, and then playing the frail-old-man card when confronted with the truth, is shameful behaviour.   

 

Full Text of Mark Foley's Instant Message Exchange with Underage Page

(WARNING: Very Explicit Language Under the "read more" Link, Definitely Not Safe For Work. ABC News was not kidding when they said they couldn't put most of this IM exchange on the air. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. )

For those of you want to see exactly what the fuss is all about.  Now that I've actually read the full text of the entire instant message exchange, as released by ABC News and posted to the Internet by citizensforethics.org, I can see why so many people are so whipped up about this. 

The language itself, while shocking to quite a few ears, is frankly nothing that you wouldn't hear on any sexually-explicit chat room like gay.com.   What's so vile and disturbing about this exchange is that it's not a conversation between two consenting adults; IT'S BETWEEN A 52 YEAR OLD CLOSETED GAY MAN IN A POSITON OF POWER AND A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD. Mark Foley is quite clearly a sexual predator, "grooming" and flattering his target.  And don't hand me that line of bullshit about 16 being "old enough" for this abuse.  You may have been a worldier 16-year-old yourself, but when I think about how naive and people-pleasing and trusting I was at 16, it just makes me want to vomit when I read this exchange.

How can anybody actually let something like this slide by?!?  Anybody--anybody, from House Speaker Dennis Hastert on down--in the American government who knew about this and did nothing until the shit hit the fan four days ago deserves to be drop-kicked out of office.

*whew* sorry, I'm having another Nancy Grace moment. 
read more | digg story

"It's not my fault! the priest made me do it/I was drunk/I'm gay!"

I am so angry, and I have so much to say about the Mark Foley scandal down in the U.S., that I hardly know where to begin.

Lawyers acting for Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who resigned after it was revealed he had sent sexually charged emails to teenage boys, said yesterday that the politician had been abused by a member of the clergy as a teenager.

No details of the alleged abuse were given, other than that Mr Foley, who is a Roman Catholic, was between 13 and 15 years old at the time of the abuse. One lawyer, David Roth, acknowledged for the first time that the congressman, 52, is gay. "Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man," Mr Roth told a news conference in Florida, adding that the admission was part of a "recovery" programme. He also insisted that Mr Foley was "absolutely, positively not a paedophile". Mr Foley said in a statement on Monday that he was an alcoholic and that he was entering a recovery programme to treat his condition. (Glaister, Dan. "Republican who sent indecent emails was abused ", The Guardian, October   4, 2006)

Oh, so now he finally decides to come out of the closet, several years after he was already outed by The Advocate newsmagazine for hypocritcally voting in favour of the "Defence of Marriage" act. 

And of course, now he checks himself into rehab, whimpering: "I did because I was drunk.";  "I did it because of that priest." 

Entering a "recovery" program?  Recovery from what?  Being gay?  Being drunk?  Getting caught??

I find it beyond pathetic that Foley finally plays the gay card, only when he thinks it will help him.  How can it help him, you ask?  By not-so-subtly using the "I'm gay so I molest children" charge which the Religious Right likes to keep throwing at us God-damned sodomites.  That way, perhaps he can cast his sexual orientation as more of a "sin" that needs "recovery".   This man is a disgrace to honest queer people everywhere, and I comfort myself with the thought that he's gonna be one helluva popular bitch at whatever prison he lands up in.

Oh, and he says he's not a paedophile?!?  Well, I guess that depends on the law, but really.  As more word leaks out about the content of those IM messages between him and one or more teenagers, one has to ask just how Mark Foel defines the term. 

Apparently he is now saying (via his lawyer) that since no physical (i.e. face-to-face) acts took place, he is not a paedophile.  This defence falls intro the category of "I never has sex with that woman!"   Clinton learned a blow job is sex.  Foley is going to soon learn that cybersex is sex.

And to make matters even worse, until his resignation he was a co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and a backer of new legislation, the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which he may well now be charged under.  HE WAS IN A POSITION OF TRUST.  (I wonder what Joe Walsh, Adam's father and host of America's Most Wanted, is thinking now.)

I got news for Mr. Foley: Being gay does NOT excuse what you did.  Being a drunk does NOT excuse what you did.  Being a victim of child sex abuse does NOT excuse what you did.  Being ANY COMBINATION OF a diddled-with, drunken faggot does NOT excuse what you did, in any way, shape or form.  That you even TRY to use these as excuses or defenses makes you even viler, if that is possible.

I hope Foley gets the book thrown at him.  His grasping, gawping response by checking into rehab and blaming booze/sexual abuse/being gay is absolutely, utterly, completely vile and reprehensible. Thankfully, most people can already see through that "rehab" act pretty easily; it's getting old. 

And ANYBODY in the U.S. federal or state govenments who is found to have kept his secrets hidden deserves to be tossed out on his ass and go down in flames along with Foley. 
  

UPDATE: Now Newt Gingrich has said that one reason why the Republicans in power didn't act on Mark Foley sooner was that they were afraid of being accused of "gaybashing".  What the...?!  As John Stewart said in response on The Today Show, assuming that all homosexuals are child sex offenders IS gaybashing.