It's OK, He Was Drunk

The priesthood ain't what it used to be...or maybe it is.

CHELSEA -- A Roman Catholic priest charged with soliciting sex from a 12-year-old girl and her mother while dining last month at a Chelsea restaurant told police he may have made ''inappropriate" remarks to them but was too drunk to remember, according to a police report.

The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, 55, who will be arraigned today in Chelsea District Court, said he remembered two females sitting near his booth at Floramo's restaurant and apologized for his behavior to Chelsea police, the report states.

''Gillespie . . . said that he had too much to drink and may have said some inappropriate things," according to the report. He ''stated he does not remember what he had said."

Gillespie resigned as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Swampscott three days after the Jan. 25 incident. He is charged with one count each of enticement of a child under age 16, solicitation of sex for a fee, and accosting a person of the opposite sex, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office.