- At a news conference yesterday, attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr. said the records in Foley’s case and others also demonstrate a double standard in the church’s treatment of priests who sexually abused boys and those who took advantage of women. ‘‘There was obviously a differentiation made between women and children,’’ said MacLeish, of the Greenberg Traurig law firm, which represents nearly half of the 450 people with claims against the archdiocese.
“Took advantage”? Who says he took advantage of the woman? There’s no evidence that Foley tok advantage of her. By all accounts it was consensual. (In fact, there’s hardly any documentation at all in the case to tell either way, but she did stay with him long enough to have three of his kids. Hardly sounds like abuse.)
I’m not trying excuse Foley’s sin, but let’s not let the lawyers and media sidetrack us. The big problem here is the sexual abuse of children by clergy and some bishops’ actions in relation to that. The focus on homosexuals as a part of the problem has made the media and activists uncomfortable and they want to shift the story to something else while keeping the public’s outrage at the Church at a peak. Don’t be fooled.
