Oct. 20, 2006
 
Priest Admits He Fondled Foley
 
By Amie Parnes
Scripps Howard News Service
 
Washington (SHNS) -- A Roman Catholic priest admitted Thursday that he had once fondled Mark Foley when the former congressman was a teenager, but denied that he raped him.
 
Anthony Mercieca, 72, a retired priest who lives on the Maltese Island of Gozo, confirmed in a telephone interview with station WPTV in West Palm Beach, Fla., that he is the clergyman whom Foley has accused of sexually abusing him when the disgraced ex-lawmaker was between 13 and 15 years of age at Sacred Heart in Lake Worth, Fla.
 
After moving from Brazil in 1967, Mercieca said he and "a very friendly" Foley quickly bonded and became "great friends."
 
"...We became attached to each other, but we didn't do anything dirty or so, you know?" he said, describing how they became companions and "like brothers."
 
"Then, uh, once _ and maybe I touched him or so, you know, but because it's not something you'd call rape or penetration or anything like that, you know?" Mercieca said in the interview. "It was just fondling. It was sort of like more like a spontaneous thing.
 
"See, 'abuse' is a bad word, you know?" Mercieca continued. "Because you abuse someone against his will, but it was just spontaneous, you know? For some people it's molestation. Maybe for other kids it's fun, you know? At the time you see it in this sense, you know?"
 
The 52-year-old Florida Republican, who resigned from Congress last month after it was discovered that he sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage pages, "would come all the time to the rectory and used to seem to like my company."
 
David Roth, Foley's criminal defense lawyer, could not be reach for comment.
 
"Yeah, we were great friends, you know?" Mercieca said. "When I came I didn't know anybody, you know? And he was _ to be very friendly _ and we became friends like that."
 
Mercieca said he and Foley frequented the rodeo, the arcade and even visited Washington and New York together, visiting museums.
 
The priest said he and Foley also went to the beach together, but "we did not do anything indecent."
 
"There was the sand and, uh _ the naturalness, you know?" he said.
 
But the priest continued to deny any wrongdoing in the interview.
 
"I would say that if I offended him, I am sorry, but that to remember the good time we had together, you know?" Mercieca said. "And how we enjoyed each other's company. And to let bygones be bygones."
 
"This was ... almost 40 years ago, so why bring this up at this stage?" the priest added.
 
(Contact Amie Parnes at parnesa(at)shns.com)