By Matthew Doig and Maurice Tamman
Sarasota Herald-Tribune [Florida]
October 20, 2006
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/NEWS/610200607/1060
Father Anthony Mercieca said Thursday he never had sexual intercourse with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, but throughout the day offered more details to national media outlets about his intimate relationship with the then-Lake Worth altar boy.
Mercieca told the Washington Post he and Foley once engaged in "light touching" and told CNN he fondled Foley when he was a teen, though he didn't consider the contact abuse because Foley "seemed to like it."
Mercieca told the Associated Press in Rome 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." The priest also said he didn't think it was unusual to go on overnight trips with a young boy.
 |
| St. Mary's Cathedral in Victoria on the Maltese island of Gozo is where the Rev. Anthony Mercieca regularly celebrates Mass. The priest says he didn't consider his fondling of Mark Foley abuse because Foley "seemed to like it." BELOW: House Majority Leader John Boehner meets reporters Thursday in Washington after testifying before the House Ethics Committee about his role in the Mark Foley scandal. Two other key congressional figures reportedly stuck to their accounts indicating that Speaker Dennis Hastert was alerted to concerns about the disgraced Florida lawmaker's behavior. Photo by The AP / Lina Azzopardi |
 |
Richard Sipe, a former priest who studies sexuality and the priesthood and has counseled abusive clergy and victims, said abusive priests typically deny that their activities were sexual because they often convince themselves that only intercourse violates their vow of celibacy.
"It's a lack of development," said Sipe, who has testified on the subject before grand juries and at civil trials against dioceses. "This is not what an adult reasons about sex."
The Herald-Tribune revealed Thursday that Mercieca was the unnamed priest Foley had claimed abused him in the 1960s. Foley was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Mercieca was a priest there in 1966 and 1967.
Mercieca is a former Archdiocese of Miami priest who now lives in his native Gozo near Italy. He continues to be an active priest there, according to Joseph Calleja, a fellow priest with the Diocese of Gozo.
| Herald-Tribune corrects photo with Foley story Herald-Tribune corrects photo with Foley story: The Herald-Tribune published the wrong photo with its story Thursday identifying the priest who may have sexually abused former Rep. Mark Foley. The photo was not of Anthony Mercieca, the Malta priest who Foley's lawyer says abused Foley. The Herald-Tribune took the photo from a section about Mercieca on the Gozo Cathedral Public Library web site. The Associated Press in Malta reports the man in the photo was a librarian. |
From Italy, Mercieca said he watched Foley's fall from Congress after sexually suggestive Internet messages he sent to young male pages were revealed. Shortly after the messages became public, Foley checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation center and announced through his attorney that he had been molested by a "clergyman."
Foley's attorney gave Mercieca's name to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office Wednesday, and officials there confirmed the Herald-Tribune report Thursday.
Although Mercieca's name went public, Foley's attorneys and church officials continued to refuse comment about the man, or even acknowledge his identity.
There is little chance of a criminal case against Mercieca. Foley was more than 12 when the event occurred, so the statute of limitations would have long since expired. And the laws on the books back then dealt with sex between men and young girls, not men and underage boys.
Mercieca has admitted to the Herald-Tribune he had a two-year relationship with Foley that people might view as inappropriate. He acknowledged one incident in which he crossed the line, a situation he blamed on a combination of alcohol and tranquilizer use.
Because of the drugs and alcohol and the length of time that has passed, he said he can't remember specific details of what happened.
Multiple calls to Mercieca and his superiors were not answered Thursday and it could not be determined if any action had been taken by his diocese.
In a letter to the bishop of Malta, which oversees the Diocese of Gozo, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called on Mercieca to be reported to local authorities, suspended from active ministry and placed under supervision.
David Clohessy, SNAP's National Director, said Foley is probably not Mercieca's only victim.
"The likelihood that such a twisted predator, in such a powerful position for four decades, would molest only one child -- the likelihood is extraordinarily slim," he said.
Clohessy criticized church leaders for claiming it would have been impossible to try and ferret out Foley's abuser until Foley gave up the name. He said the statement shows that Catholic leaders have not changed in the four years since widespread priest abuse and cover-ups by the church became public.
"They passively sit back and wait for the phone to ring and pray that it doesn't," Clohessy said. "This isn't rocket science. If there's a suspected crime, and a potentially dangerous predator, you take aggressive steps to find out who it is and protect other children."
Archdiocese of Miami and Diocese of Palm Beach officials have said for several weeks they would not investigate until Foley named his alleged abuser, calling the search "impossible" and a "witch-hunt."
Mercieca's confessions about his behavior decades ago with Foley startled those who have known him.
"There was a measure of shock and surprise," said Father Paul Vuturo of St. Bartholomew Church in Miramar, who served several years with Mercieca at St. James Catholic Church in North Miami in the late 1970s.
"I never saw anything back then that suggested this."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.