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	Some in Diocese Feel Sense of Relief after Priest Comes Forward in Foley Case TCPalm [Florida] October 20, 2006 http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/nation_world_news/article/0,2546,TCP_1022_5079620,00.html The admission of a Roman Catholic priest that he had once fondled former Congressman Mark Foley brought a sense of relief to some in the Diocese of Palm Beach, which was rocked when Foley claimed abuse by a member of the clergy when he was young but would not name the person involved. Anthony Mercieca, 69, a retired priest who lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, confirmed in a telephone interview with station WPTV Ch. 5 in West Palm Beach he is the clergyman whom Foley accused of sexually abusing him when the disgraced ex-lawmaker was between 13 and 15 years old at Sacred Heart in Lake Worth. In Palm Beach County, Chris Storch breathed a sigh of relief when she heard about Mercieca. The Lake Worth restaurant manager was in Foley's class at Sacred Heart, and she and her family were "upset" as they waited in recent days to find out the name of the accused clergyman. "There were a lot of priests at that parish we were very close to," said Storch, now 51. "They'd come over to our house for dinner and everything. I was hoping, against hope, it wasn't someone who was a dear friend of the family. Thankfully, it wasn't." Mercieca said while he fondled Foley when the former congressman was a teenager, he denied he raped him. 'GREAT FRIENDS' 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 Fort Pierce Republican, who resigned from Congress last month after it was discovered 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," Mercieca said. NO CRIMINAL CHARGES Officials at the Office of Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer confirmed this afternoon that Mercieca is the priest accused by Foley, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. Prosecutors said they released the name to Archdiocese of Miami attorney J. Patrick Fitzgerald, who could not be reached for comment. David Roth, Foley's criminal defense lawyer, also could not be reached for comment. Officials at the State Attorney's Office said they are not investigating Foley's accusations. Foley is not asking that criminal charges be filed, spokesman Mike Edmondson said. Anyone seeking to file criminal charges would have to be specific in their allegations so that the state attorney's office could research the statutes back then and determine if they still apply, Edmondson said. "The question is whether other victims ... would want to proceed," he said. "That remains to be seen." 'LET BYGONES BE BYGONES' On Thursday, Mercieca said he and Foley "were great friends. ... When I came I didn't know anybody, you know? And he was ... 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?" Mercieca said on Thursday. Richard Sipe, a former priest who studies sexuality and the priesthood and has counseled abusive clergy and victims, said abusive priests typically deny their activities were sexual, because they often convince themselves 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." NOTHING UNUSUAL A study of five decades of clergy sex abuse claims, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the U.S. bishops, found that most victims have been adolescent boys and about 44 percent of the accused clergymen had more than one victim. During Mercieca's time at Sacred Heart, Storch was in about the fourth grade, she said. Her seven siblings — including two former altar boy brothers slightly younger than Foley — also attended the K-8 Lake Worth Catholic school. Storch said she never noticed anything unusual about Mercieca or his behavior around young boys, including her brothers. Around campus back then, it wasn't unusual to see the boys with priests and the girls with nuns, she said. Storch said she knew by high school that Foley was gay and that they often ran into one another on holidays, at weddings and funerals. She called the recent e-mail scandal in which Foley allegedly sent salacious messages to teenage boys "horrible for everybody involved." Also Thursday, the Miami Archdiocese released a statement encouraging anyone who has been sexually abused by a clergy member or church employee to contact the Victim's Assistance Coordinator at (866) 802-2873 or their local law enforcement department.
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