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The head of a New England-based charitable organization that provides free schooling for impoverished Haitians told the Boston Globe over the weekend he rejected Robert Kraft’s $100,000 donation due to his prostitution case.
“We cannot do good by doing bad. The ends cannot justify the means,” Patrick Moynihan told the Globe.
In a challenging interview Monday with “Mut & Callahan,” the Roman Catholic deacon, whose brother serves as Bank of America’s chairman, expanded on his initial repudiation of Kraft. Moynihan says he would still be happy to accept Kraft’s offer, as long as the Patriots’ owner expresses more repentance for his actions.
“The thing that hasn’t been covered is that we responded to the offer saying very clearly we were willing to work with Mr. Kraft to make his offer acceptable, but that would be contingent upon him taking responsibility for his actions,” Moynihan said. “Not that I’m here to judge him, that’s between him and God. I’m a sinner myself, and we’re all in need of God’s mercy. What we were suggesting to Mr. Kraft, through our communication, is if he was serious about reclaiming his public reputation and repairing that –– we felt he was getting extremely bad advice. Better advice would be to take responsibility for his actions, denounce prostitution, which is part of the sex trade and cripples and cruel treats people, especially vulnerable people around the world, and especially women in developing countries. His lawyers are running everyday public servants through the mill for no reason.”
While Kraft has apologized publicly, saying he’s “truly sorry,” Moynihan says the statement was insufficient.
“What he apologized for was the embarrassment he caused to his family, friends and team. I read what he stated. He had a press release,” Moynihan explained. “You do not want to be a tool of this situation and trying to give an everyday person who’s trying to do what’s right a hard time.”
Most of all, Moynihan says he’s perturbed by Kraft’s aggressive legal defense and apparent attempts to skirt the charges through technicalities.
“We’re not talking from a legal point of view. We’re talking from a civic point of view. Society is not being well-served by this situation,” he said. “You don’t need a law degree to understand running civil servants through crucibles of testimony just because they were looking out for the common good and public health is not what the court system is for.
“I personally wrote to him in a letter offering to work with him on an authentic path to reclaim his reputation. That’s the job of every U.S. citizen –– to stand up for the law, stand up for good civic behavior.”