Last week Foley made good on his threat to unmask the man he says molested him when he was an altar boy in Lake Worth, Fla. Father Antonio Mercieca, now 72 and living on a tiny island near Malta, acknowledged to reporters that he and the teenage Foley skinny-dipped and were naked together in saunas–but said he never had sex with the boy. As church authorities barred Mercieca from practicing as a priest, Mercieca told NEWSWEEK, “I do not know why some things that happened 40 years ago are of interest to anyone now.” What’s of interest to voters now are Foley’s sexually suggestive e-mails to House pages, and how his party handled the matter. With control of Congress at stake as midterms approach, it remains to be seen whether the tale of the altar boy and the priest will win any sympathy for the GOP.
