GUILDERLAND (NY)
Times Union
August 13, 2019
By Paul Grondahl
Each night, after dark, the priest rolled slowly up to the driveway of the green Colonial house on Debutante Manor in his green Cadillac DeVille, and flicked the high beams.
This was their private signal.
One of the four kids turned off the front floodlights, pressed the automatic opener from inside the garage, waited for the big luxury sedan to glide in and then pressed the garage door closed.
The Rev. Francis P. Melfe peeled off his Roman collar and cleric’s black shirt and emerged from the car wearing black slacks, black dress shoes and a white T-shirt.
The Catholic priest stepped into the kitchen and greeted the kids, who called him Dad. He kissed their mother, his secret lover with whom he shared a bedroom and fathered a child — despite taking vows of celibacy and obedience as a diocesan priest.
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