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	Abusive Priests Often Deny Effect of Actions, Studies Find By Peter Franceschina and Jim Davis South Florida Sun-Sentinel October 23, 2006 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpjustify23oct23,0,7180629.story?coll=sfla-news-broward The Rev. Anthony Mercieca doesn't characterize his relationship with a young Mark Foley as sexual, or even harmful. To him it was a "spontaneous thing." Specialists who treat and study abusive priests say Mercieca's efforts to downplay and rationalize his actions with the teenage Foley are common. In a study commissioned in 2002 by the U.S. Catholic Conference and conducted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice, researchers found that justifying and excusing abusive behavior were a result of distorted thinking and denial. "It's not something you'd call rape or penetration or anything like that. It was just fondling. It was sort of like a spontaneous thing," Mercieca, 69, told WPTV-Ch. 5 from the Maltese island of Gozo, where has lived since retiring from the Archdiocese of Miami in 2002. "He may not have had any kind of sexual penetration, but clearly his actions weren't even close to acceptable," said Fred Berlin, a Johns Hopkins University psychiatry professor specializing in sexual disorders. "The priest doesn't appreciate the extent that his conduct was harmful. ... We see that kind of rationalization and denial often." In media interviews, Mercieca said he and Foley, who was about 13 at the time, would cavort about in the nude while skinny-dipping, in saunas, during massages, while on trips. People familiar with such cases say Mercieca was in a position of power and trust, which he violated, when he served as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart in Lake Worth in 1966-67, and the young Foley was an altar boy. Foley, 52, a Republican from Fort Pierce, resigned from Congress last month after sexually explicit messages he sent to young male pages surfaced. The scandal has rocked Capitol Hill and the nation, and led to accusations of cover-ups among the GOP leadership. Days after the scandal broke, one of Foley's attorneys announced that Foley was an alcoholic, that he was gay and that a clergyman molested him as a youth. Foley is now in seclusion in an undisclosed treatment center. Mercieca said several times he didn't understand why his relationship with Foley was coming up 40 years later. "Let bygones be bygones," the priest said. "He really just seems to be out of touch with the way others are going to see this. He doesn't seem to appreciate the abuse of sacred trust," Berlin said. It is common for sex offenders to be baffled by the reaction of others when their conduct comes to light, said Thomas Plante, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University who has evaluated and treated abusive priests. "It is very hard for people to take personal responsibility for their behavior," Plante said. One reason Mercieca's comments may seem beyond the pale is that some priests live in an isolated world, Plante said. Mercieca said that at the time he knew the young Foley, "I had a nervous breakdown and was taking some pills and alcohol and maybe I did something that he didn't like." Mercieca's comments were "very typical of an unrecovered sexual abuser," said Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, president of Saint Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., which treats priests and nuns for sexual disorders, depression and alcoholism. "The case gives an insight into the psychological mechanism of a perpetrator," Rossetti said. "They're into denial and minimization. They haven't come face to face with the reality of what they've done." Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5503.
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