A Roman Catholic priest has admitted to having an intimate relationship with Mark Foley when the disgraced Republican lawmaker was about 12 years old, Florida media reported on Thursday.
The revelation came amid an explosive scandal over revelations that while Florida's representative in Washington, Foley had sent sexually suggestive messages to teenage congressional aides.
Foley resigned last month, and his lawyer said the prominent Republican was an alcoholic, gay and had been molested as a boy by a priest.
Roman Catholic priest Anthony Mercieca, 72, admitted to a newspaper and a television station that he had a series of encounters with Foley that might be perceived as inappropriate, but denied he had raped the boy about four decades ago.
"I was down, I was taking pills, tranquilizers ... then once maybe I touched him or so. But it's not something you call rape or penetration or anything like that, it was fondling," Mercieca said in an interview with Palm Beach's WPTV station.
Mercieca told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune he had taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex.
He said he had massaged Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipped with him at a lake and was naked in the same room on overnight trips, the paper reported.
Mercieca told the daily that after he moved from Brazil to Florida in 1966, he and Foley became close friends and "loved each other like brothers." Foley would have been 12 or 13 at the time.
The priest said he didn't understand why Foley has decided to come forward after almost 40 years. "Why does he want to destroy me in my old age?" Mercieca told the newspaper.
"I would say that if I offended him, I am sorry. But remember the good times we had together and how we enjoyed each other's company, and let bygones be bygones," he told WPTV.
Mercieca, who now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo, said that, at the time, he considered his relationship with Foley innocent but now realized his actions could be labeled inappropriate, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said.
Republican leaders of Congress have been accused of failing to take appropriate action or even of covering up what they knew of the scandal, which has dominated US politics since the story broke late last month.
The widening scandal has increased pressure on the Republicans as they risk losing control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 at the Nov. 7 mid-term elections.
Probes have been launched by the US Justice Department, a congressional ethics committee and Florida state authorities.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami said Foley's lawyer had given the name of his client's alleged abuser to the Palm Beach State Attorney.
"Once the State Attorney concludes its investigation and/or releases the name of the alleged abuser to the archdiocese, it is our intention to make the name public per our policy relating to the protection of children and vulnerable adults," it said in a statement.
"The Archdiocese of Miami prays that representative Mark Foley realizes he is not alone in his journey to recovery; the Holy Spirit is his guiding light," said the statement.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to