BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
[CORRECTED ONLINE VERSION – The Boston Globe posted this story online with 1,246 words missing, including the account of the second survivor to accuse Foley. This material appeared in the print edition, but not in the online edition. The incomplete posting also omitted a photo caption which stated that “Cardinal Joseph A. Ratzinger, then head of the Vatican office dealing with sexual abuse and now the pope, recommended that Foley be given an opportunity to defend himself.”
The Globe corrected its online version at approximately 10:25 a.m. on September 9, 2012, to include the omitted material. In order to view the complete article, click on the link above and refresh your browser window.]
September 9, 2012
By Lisa Wangsness
[Excerpt from the omitted portion:]
As the second alleged abuse victim describes it, there were any number of reasons why he didn’t bring an abuse claim to the archdiocese when so many other victims did, in 2002 and 2003. It was a time when he was busy establishing himself in his profession, and in his family life.
He also did not recognize what had happened to him as sexual abuse, he says. He blamed himself for allowing his relationship with Foley to continue for so long, into young adulthood.
But a couple of years ago, the man found himself reading the website of Bishop Accountability, an online archive of the abuse scandal, and came across the first complaint about Foley. It sounded so familiar. [See the material regarding the first allegation in BishopAccountability.org]
Foley had also approached him gradually, he said in an interview with the Globe, asking the then 12- or 13-year-old boy to show him his developing body, including his genitals.
The second alleged victim came from a large, working-class family. He was highly intelligent, and Foley could talk to him about academics in a way his parents couldn’t. The priest lavished him with attention and advice.
“He was like a teacher, he had real power,” the man said. “Especially because I was really believing all the church stuff.”
Foley began to take him into his private room at the Holy Name rectory and molest him, the man said. He cast the sessions as part of confession, saying they were necessary so that “there are no barriers between us.”
The man recalled standing in Foley’s private sitting room in the rectory one afternoon, staring at a closed door to the hallway, as Foley abused him. He was no more than 13.
“If someone even opens that door a crack,” he says he remembers thinking, “they are going to see me standing right here with no clothes on.”
But no one, he says, ever did.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.