Priest Admits Foley Relationship

Tells Newspaper About Questionable Encounters When Ex-Congressman Was A Boy

(CBS/AP)  A Roman Catholic priest said he had an inappropriate two-year relationship with former Rep. Mark Foley in the 1960s that included massaging the boy in the nude, but he did not specifically remember having sex, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 72, described several encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. They include massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being nude in the same room on overnight trips.

"Once maybe I touched him or so ... but I didn't — it's not something you call rape or penetration or anything like that," Mercieca told West Palm Beach station WPTV in a phone interview.

"He seemed to like it, you know? So it was sort of more like a spontaneous thing," Mercieca said.

In a phone interview Thursday with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric, Mercieca confirmed many of the details of the story, including that he had spent time with Foley over a two-year period. Watch Couric's report at 6:30 p.m. ET on the CBS Evening News..

Mercieca said there was one night when he was in a drug-induced stupor and there was an incident but he couldn't clearly remember, the newspaper reported.

"I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," the newspaper reported Mercieca as saying from his home on the island of Gozo, south of Sicily. "I was taking pills — tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mercieca acknowledged that he used to go naked in saunas with Foley, but denied that the two had sex. But he said the report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune about their relationship was "exaggerated."

"We were friends and trusted each other as brothers and loved each other as brothers," Mercieca said. Asked if their relationship was sexual in nature, the priest replied: "it wasn't."

"Let's say it was 40 years ago, almost 40 years ago, so why bring this up at this late stage?" Mercieca asked during the WPTV interview. "Anyway, he will overcome it, with a psychiatrist you know. Mark is a very intelligent man."

Mercieca told the AP that he and Foley would go into saunas naked when he was a priest in Florida and Foley was a parishioner, but he said "everybody does that."

Sarasota Herald-Tribune Executive Editor Mike Connelly stood by the newspaper's story, saying it "accurately reports what the priest said."

Foley resigned from Congress last month after his sexually explicit e-mails to young male pages surfaced.

His lawyer said shortly after his resignation that Foley was an alcoholic, gay and had been molested as a boy by a "clergyman." Foley's civil lawyer, Gerald Richman, said the alleged abuser was a Catholic priest whose name he shared with state prosecutors on Wednesday.

Richman did not return phone messages left Thursday by The Associated Press. Foley's criminal defense lawyer, David Roth, declined to comment.

Earlier this month, Roth said "Mark does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate" e-mails and instant messages. "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."

Mercieca had worked at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Worth in 1967, according to church records. Foley would have been 13 at the time.

Mercieca, 72, said he and Foley became fast friends when he moved there from Brazil and "loved each other like brothers," the newspaper reported.

Mercieca said he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex, though he wouldn't specify what he meant, the newspaper said. It reported the priest said that at the time, he considered the relationship innocent, but he now says he could see how his actions could be called inappropriate.

Mercieca said although Foley plans to "expose him to the world," he still has "great memories of our trips," the newspaper reported.

"I wish him well," Mercieca said. "Let bygones be bygones."

Mercieca was adamant that his encounter with Foley was an aberration, and that the Catholic Church never had to send him for counseling during his 38 years in the priesthood in Florida, according to the newspaper.

"I have been in many parishes, and I have never been" accused, he said.

A Web site for the Diocese of Gozo lists Mercieca as one of its priests. Joseph Calleja, a priest with the diocese, said Mercieca is still an active priest but that he lives at his own home. Gozo is an island in Malta.

[meeche1]

Foley is a dirty sleazebag who is scrambling at straws trying to dig his way out of his porno *** capade with the Pages. Does he honestly think that by claiming he was abused by a Priest 50 years ago that it is going to lessen his guilt about he is doing NOW - He is a rotten bum who should just go away and never surface again. How many more of these ****'s are in positions of honor with our government? Get rid of everyone who even smells of filth. They all think it is OK because Clinton did it with Monica. What a rotten example for our country.

[pirkey76]

I just read this article and am very angry. Just because this priest never had been accused in all of his years in the priesthood dosen't mean it didn't happen. It means he either didn't get caught or was let go by the "boys club". Let it go? Let bygones be bygones? PUULEASE!!! Haven't we learned anything over the years about the danger of keeping "the little secret"? And telling Foley that he needs couseling? Well he does but so does the priest. I think this priest has alot of time coming in purgitory.

[rumboogie3]

I just finished readng the "Priest admits....." article and I became angry. Not so much in what He did, but the way he said it. This "man", to quote the paper said, "After all it was over 40 years ago, why bring it up now." He dismissed his actions as if it was no big thing, thats quite an attitude to take. He is just as guilty as Foley is. How many other young boys did he Merciera approach.
It is time for all Americans to stand up and do something about our elected officials in Washington. Its not just the Foley case, its everything illegal that goes on at the Capitol. From illegal contributions, kick backs on contracts, that is a small sampling of the things that go on. I am real tired of it all.

[terminalman1-2009]

THIS ISN'T ABOUT THE *** REPUBLICAN FOLEY. THIS IS ABOUT THE BRAINDEAD MCCAIN. THIS GUY SCARES ME MORE THAN GEORGE BUSH. HE WAS A PRISONER OF WAR IN VIETNAM AND THEN HAS THE BALLS TO SAY HE WOULD SEND MORE TROOPS INTO IRAQ. WHEN MCCAIN WAS A POW I BET YOU HE WAS WORKING FOR THE VIETCONG.

[debrasimons]

One thing is for sure. If the Catholic priest who molested a 13 year old boy as Foley wss at the time, is still involved with the church, it is no surprise that I have the feelings about Catholicism that I possess. It seems pedophilia runs rampant in organized religion. In our entire sick society. The priest is quite obviously a sociopath and speaks flippantly about his filthy and illegal,I would think, deeds. Is this representational of the attitude of the Catholic church today? Where is the accountablity? The church barely acknowledges the pedophilia that runs rampant among their priests and nuns. It is a church based on pedophilia as far I can tell. Would someone beg to differ? Yes, Foley is responsible for the acts he committed toward the boys. He made the choice to make those advances. The priest made the choice to fondle and take sexual favors from a child. Anyone who takes advantage of a child in a sexual manner should be taken out and summarily burned at the stake just sa the Catholics once did to the supposed heretics.

[agnim]

So the church pervert first sodomized and traumatized the filth-stirring Foley, after gaining the confidence of the children and their parents.

And Foley in turn passes on his deviant behavior to children of the wider society.

LEARN PEOPLE!

That is the way in which the homosexual deviance comes to be so dominant in western/christian societies compared to non-christian/non-western societies: The churches of child sodomy are mainly responsible for the spread of homosexual deviance in western/christian societies!

[cofmanaaron]

Hey everybody, I mentioned earlier how a Republican was interviewed on CNN and couldn't answer the question on if they had any evidence that Pelosi of other Democrats knew about Foley beforehand. Well if anyone wants to see what I'm talking about, you can go to this site to see the excerpt as shown on a video clip. It's about 2 minutes into the video, and worth the wait.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kcQMZp
Q3l3g&mode=related&search=

[stevex47]

Republinazi's will do anything to get power. Whether it's rigging the vote in florida or this:

"A Republican congressional candidate said Thursday that he has fired a campaign staffer who may have been the source of a letter that falsely told Hispanics that immigrants can go to jail if they try to vote."

Why can't they win a vote the honest way? Ya, you guys have morals.

[bluestardad]

Remember to Vote Republican and get a free gift, Mr. Foley%u2019s %u201CSoap on a Rope%u201D guaranteed to help you achieve Mission Accomplished, especially made for those of you who are having trouble Staying the Course.

Special Note: This product will be discretely delivered in plain brown paper wrapping complete with plausible deniability and I do not recall disclaimer instructions.

[cofmanaaron]

See the Channel 7 archive video at www.washingtonwilsonwatch.com under 'highly inappropriate'.