Bad Love

If parents should be able to trust anyone with their kids, you'd think it would be THE GUY WHO RUNS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S EFFORTS TO KEEP KIDS SAFE.

But, apparently, Mark Foley couldn't be trusted. The gay/not-gay/gay congressman had too much love to give those pages, and now he's the second-most famous pederast ever.

BUT, say his lawyers, let's not forget who the real victim is here: Why, it's the much maligned, alcoholic, abused-by-his-reverend Mark Foley! Just because he's a congressman in charge of efforts to keep predators away from kids, that's no reason to think he could keep his own demons at bay! Besides, "Any suggestion that Mark Foley is a pedophile is false!"

AND, say the Republicans, let's not forget who the real bad guys are here: Why, it's those terrible child-buggering Democrats! Why, isn't there a gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts around here somewhere? And that guy who did the same thing 33 years ago! It's THEIR fault! And Bill Clinton's!

Yep, it was all those LIBERAL DEMOCRATS who made Foley have AIM-sex with his former pages while waiting to cast his vote for the war funding.

Posted by ADM at 11:50 PM | Permalink

Five of the brothers at the Russian Orthodox Christ of the Hills Monastery in Texas have been charged with sexual assault of a child. The person who came forward to accuse the monks says that he had been assaulted at the monastery beginning in 1993, when he was a teenager. Since then, another man has come forward saying the same thing, and the DA says there could be more.

It sounds like the young man in question was a novice, living at the monastery and preparing to become a brother via some questionable induction ceremonies with the elders. I suspect this is the case, considering that one of the five indicted monks, Jonathan Hitt, 45, was convicted in 1999 of indecency with a 14-year-old novice monk at the Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery, and is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence.

The other monks are William Hughes, 55, known as Father Vasilli; Walter Christley, 44, known as Father Pangratios; Hugh Fallon, 40, known as Father Tihkon; and monastery founder Samuel Greene, 61, known as Father Benedict. Greene also pleaded guilty six years ago to indecency with the same novice monk from the 1999 case and was sentenced to 10 years' probation. In this case, they are pleading not guilty.

Check out this scary picture of Greene from the earlier case.

It looks like this monastery has been involved with sexual abuse of children frequently enough to warrant an entire page about it on a website that monitors abuse in the Orthodox community.

As if novice molestation wasn't enough reason to visit the Christ of the Hills monastery, visitors also come to see a painting of the Virgin Mary who allegedly cries tears of myrrh. Locals are dubious. The sheriff said, "The whole thing is going to be exposed as a sham. They just put the tear drops on there themselves and then got all these people making donations trying to get some kind of miracle cure."

Posted by Amy at 01:33 PM | Permalink

In 1995, the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut defrocked Bruce Jacques for propositioning a 13 year-old boy. He allegedly offered the boy a blow job as a "confirmation gift"; when the story came out, he was defrocked and the church settled with the boy's family out of court.

In 2003, Jacques was hired as a fundraiser for the Robert Louis Stevenson School, a private school in Manhattan for underachieving students, many of whom seem to have a history of behavior problems. Troubled kids who have been rejected by many other authority figures and are searching for acceptance? A child molester's dream! A 13 year-old student at the school has just accused Jacques of molesting him in Central Park. It seems the school administrators never checked with the diocese about what prompted his career change.

Jacques has taken off since the cops were notified about the student's claim, and is now on the run.

[NY Post story]

Posted by Amy at 10:27 AM | Permalink