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The Guardian - AU

World

Rebecca Root in Bangkok

‘I was a drunk for 20 years’: The unlikely US priest revered in the slums of Bangkok

Bangkok Mercy SOPA Images Thailand

Father Joe at the Mercy centre in Bangkok — Father Joe administers the Mercy centre which provides a safe haven for children who have been sexually abused or are involved in drugs and child trafficking. Photograph: Paul Lakatos/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

“This other priest is always drunk, so you go take his place.”

With that simple instruction, Joseph H Maeir, a Catholic priest from the United States, found himself in Thailand, ending up in the slums of Bangkok in the 1970s.

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