by Gouda » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:34 am
And just as I had finished reading this: <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Priest tells paper of inappropriate behavior with Foley</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/19/foley.priest.ap/index.html">edition.cnn.com/2006/POLI...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>"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."<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> Eh, home on the island of Gozo? Not bad. Gozo? He wouldn't happen to be a Knight of...<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>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. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Gozo, a Mediterranean island that is part of the Republic of Malta</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> Back to the story: <br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Mercieca, 72, said he and Foley became fast friends when he moved there from Brazil and "loved each other like brothers," the newspaper reported.<br><br>Mercieca said he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex, though he wouldn't specify what he meant, the newspaper said. <br><br>"I wish him well," Mercieca said. "Let bygones be bygones."<br><br>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.<br><br>"I have been in many parishes, and I have never been accused," he said.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>