Vanity Fair: Don't Ask … Don't E-mail ( Everyone knew about Mark Foley)

[kskiska]

by Gail Sheehy and Judy Bachrach January 2007

The half-open closet in which Mark Foley spent his life was a recipe for disaster, say those few who tried to intervene. Investigating Foley's pre-teen seduction by a priest, the "ladies' man" mask he wore in Palm Beach society, and his love-hate relationship with the gay community, the authors uncover the ambition, delusion, and hypocrisy that corroded both the politician and his party.

Everyone knew Mark Foley was gay. Everyone. And everyone who had a stake in his success—party, press, parents, staff, supporters, and pages—conspired for their own purposes to keep the closet half closed.

Born at the peak of the baby boom, in 1954, he grew up near Palm Beach, in the scrappy little town of Lake Worth, Florida, which in recent years has become a popular refuge for gay retirees. That subculture most likely did not enter into the consciousness of his parents, Irish Catholics from Massachusetts. "One of the biggest psychological problems for him was he was never able to be who he was with his parents, and they were his No. 1 campaigners," says Eric Johnson, the openly gay chief of staff for Florida congressman Robert Wexler and an old friend of the Foley family's.

In the early 70s, Foley developed the veneer of a charming, heterosexual party boy, and a high-school yearbook caption depicted him as "noted for—being a ladies man." But the formative experience of his passage through puberty, as the world now knows, was his seduction by an authority figure whose attentions may have been a guilty pleasure. A priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic School took him biking and skinny-dipping and massaged him in the nude, often bringing him to saunas for fondling. Unlike a peer of his who ran away from another priest's overtures, young Foley apparently did not resist. The Reverend Anthony Mercieca, who was 17 years older than Foley, claims they became "attached to each other .… almost like brothers." Foley's mother welcomed the priest into their home for Christmas dinners and his parents allowed him to take their adolescent son to the beach and on sleepover trips to New York and Washington.

more…
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/01/foley200701?currentPage=1

[truedelphi]

1. I dislike the sound byte of the 4th paragraph's sentence:

>>Unlike a peer of his who ran away from another priest's overtures, young Foley apparently >>did not resist.

How old was he when this happened? How much of an innocent?

A child and even an adolescent might not resist for many reasons. As a young eleven year old girl,I had an adult male relative "try things" with me when I was eleven. I knew nothing about sex. The adult would be molester told me that what he was trying was my fault, and that he would hurt my sister if I ever told.

Although his actions led to naught (his first and only attempt ended when the car we were in had to stop at a stoplight and I got out and ran away) I remained DEEPLY ashamed for over six or seven years. I only told my parents when this man showed up at our house to stay the summer (a summer when my thirteen year old sister would have been around.)

The article by paragraph four makes Foley sound as though he is responsible for a priest's pedophilia.

To me, no child is ever responsible for a predator adult's actions. And yes,sometimes some children caught in those situations do end up "enjoying" some of it. But the trade off they make for the bit of pleasure they get is a warping of the rest of their life.

[NVMojo]

2. it's all disgusting and no solution at this point ...