Think The Priest Was A Drunk, Too?

You could see this coming from a mile away: The Irish Catholic Mark Foley was sexually abused by a priest when he was a teenager. What a no-brainer. Of course the Foley sex scandal was going to merge with the Catholic Church sex scandal. It's a marriage made in hell.

I rather suggestively pointed out in a post a couple days ago that Foley's family was very close to a former priest at Cardinal Newman High School. Not that the priest in question necessarily did anything wrong; Foley's mother, Frances, used to cook

for priests on a regular basis, according to the 2001 Post story. So there are plenty of suspects.

This story isn't going to end. The news was broken by Foley's attorney, David Roth, during an afternoon press conference. According to Brian E. Crowley's story in the Palm Beach Post, Roth said, "Finally Mark Foley wants you to know that he is a gay man."

Finally, indeed. So I guess it's not revolting and unforgivable anymore -- it's part of being human. And man is Foley sharing his humanity these days. He's a boozer, he's gay, he was molested by a priest. It's a smart ploy -- he's trying to build up some sympathy from the public. He'll have mixed success at best, but it's really the only route to take.

But is it all true or is he making some of this stuff up?

Well, I'm still not sure he was a bona fide drunk, but I definitely believe the molestation part. Once again, Foley is proving to be the Christian Right's model gay man: A normal boy who was molested by a pervert, became gay, and ultimately became a pervert himself. Next he'll go through one of those training sessions and de-gay himself. Holy Christ.