Revelations by former Rep. Mark Foley that he was abused by a “clergyman”-he didnt’ say who, when or where-is rattling the skeletons in the closet of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla.

Palm Beach has a dark history of troubled clergy-“Palm Beach is certainly among the most troubled dioceses in terms of clergy sex-abuse cases,” said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, in a story by Scripps Howards’ Tom Harwood.

When I worked in Florida, the first story I ever wrote (on my second day at work) was the resignation of Bishop Keith Symans after he admitted to abuse decades earlier. That was followed four years later by the resigation of Bishop Anthony O’Connell on similar charges.

Now, just when the diocese was trying to put all this behind them, La Cage Au Foley has opened up those wounds. Bill Brooks, a well-known Palm Beach Catholic, urged Foley to provide details so that all Palm Beach priests aren’t held under a cloud.

“Let’s hypothesize that Mark Foley was abused by a clergyman,” said Bill Brooks, a former priest who has known Foley since Foley attended Cardinal Newman in 1969. “Then name him. Why should we cast a cloud of suspicion over the many good people who worked as clergy 35 years ago?”