ShareThisBy AMIE PARNES
Former Congressman Mark Foley was molested by a member of the clergy when he was a teenager but "continues to offer no excuse whatsoever" for sending sexually explicit Internet messages to teenage boys who worked as congressional pages, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The attorney, David Roth, also told a news conference: "Mark Foley wants you to know that he is a gay man."
Roth said the disgraced former lawmaker from south Florida was abused between the ages of 13 and 15 but would not name the clergyman or the church where the molestation occurred. But Foley is a practicing Roman Catholic.
Roth said Foley "does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate e-mails" and online messages. "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."
The lawyer denied for the second straight day that Foley is a pedophile.
"He absolutely never had any inappropriate sexual contact with a minor," Roth said in West Palm Beach, Fla. "Any suggestion that Mark Foley is a pedophile is false."
Foley resigned from Congress on Friday after reports surfaced that he exchanged a series of sexually explicit e-mails with a teenager and former congressional page. At midnight on Sunday, Roth said he accompanied Foley to a rehabilitation facility for alcohol treatment and other behavioral issues. Foley will remain at the facility for 30 days, Roth said.
Foley, was a "closet alcoholic" who drank after hours. He entered rehab as part of "a life decision, not a tactical one" by others, Ross said. The most recent revelations were "part of his recovery" and that Foley has asked staffers not to delete, alter, or touch anything on his computer.
Foley did not divulge the information about his sexual abuse sooner because of "shame, shame."
"As is so often the case with victims of abuse, Mark advises that he kept his shame to himself for almost 40 years," Roth said.
Alexis Walkenstein, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Palm Beach, would not comment on the claims that Foley was molested by a clergyman at a young age.
"[Foley's] lawyer wouldn't say if it was a priest or an imam or a rabbi so without that knowledge it would be inappropriate for us to comment," Walkenstein said Tuesday night. "We have no details about this and [Roth] didn't say anything about denomination, so this may not even be part of the Catholic church.
"We're not going to comment on speculation," Walkenstein added. "We'll know more in 30 days."
Catholism is an important part of Foley's life. While in elementary school, he attended Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth.
"At Sacred Heart, I was taught to how to be a better citizen because of their focus on discipline and moral values," Foley said in a House floor speech earlier this year.
Last year, he was one of 26 members who attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Foley also had a chance to meet the pontiff in 2003, for a celebration for the pope's 25 years in office.
Foley displayed a portrait capturing the moment on a table in his congressional office in Washington. His grandmother's rosary beads are draped around it.
Staff writers Michelle Sheldone and Nadia Gergis contributed to this report.
