The Most Rev. Roger Foys, who oversees Covington Catholic High School as the diocesan bishop in Kentucky,
apologized in a letter to the students, their families and anyone who the diocese offended with its public denouncement of the students and its subsequent announcement of an investigation into the matter. Foys claimed the diocese allowed itself to be "bullied and pressured" into condemning the students based on a short excerpt of hours of video of
the incident, without reaching out to the students or investigating the matter further.
"We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had. We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it," Foys wrote,
according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.Foys also specifically apologized to Nick Sandmann, the Covington junior identified as the student who wore a "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) hat and smiled at Phillips while the Native American tribal elder banged a drum in his face.
"I especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann and his family as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal. Nicholas unfortunately has become the face of these allegations based on video clips," he added. "This is not fair. It is not just."
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