Experts on sex abuse say the comments of a Roman Catholic priest who acknowledged being naked with Mark Foley when the former congressman was young fit a pattern of distorted thinking that they’ve seen over and over among offenders.
The Rev. Anthony Mercieca told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was naked with Foley in a sauna, and he was quoted in other interviews saying he also fondled him. Mercieca said the encounters weren’t sexual, a distinction abuse experts found disturbing.
“The priest is very focused on the legalities here, and I think it’s important for the rest of us to see the enormous power differential between these two,” said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
“There is a tremendous abuse of authority and position involved in these activities, whether or not they constitute child molestation.”
Foley, 52, resigned from Congress last month after his sexually explicit computer messages to young male pages were released. His attorney has said that Foley was an alcoholic, was gay and had been molested as a youth by a clergyman.
The Archdiocese of Miami confirmed Friday that Mercieca, 69, is the person Foley said abused him as a teen. In phone interviews, the priest, who is retired and lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, has given details about his encounters with Foley four decades ago.
The priest told the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune that he and Foley “loved each other like brothers” and that although he taught Foley “some wrong things” related to sex, Mercieca insisted their interactions were innocent.
“It was just fondling,” he told WPTV of West Palm Beach, Fla.
From the perspective of people who have worked with abusers and their victims, that thinking is typical of a molester. They commonly view their involvement with their victims as normal.
“This is the same type of rationalization that I’ve heard time and time again from priests who have been grooming or setting a young boy up for molestation,” said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer turned victim advocate.
The Herald-Tribune reported that Mercieca said he could not clearly remember one encounter “that might have gone too far” because he had been taking tranquilizers and drinking at the time.
