The Perrys News Today

Besides their active roles in their church, the couple were also educators.

Your son was aware of violence. >> yes. >> reporter: he wrote, with all of the shootings and police violence on minorities, you have to have a sense of light inside of you. >> thats who he was. thats who he is. everywhere he went, he wanted to leave a little bit of his light. >> reporter: one semester shy of graduation and now another family in our country in a fight they did not want. >> i had just gotten off the phone with him. i had just gotten off the phone with him. >> reporter: a tremendou...

How much of this is a function of not the split delegates or the money or all this but the fact that the actual debate is a terrible debate? that were complaining not -- of course you want to short an lousy debate, but you could have a long fantastic debate as well. >> no. absolutely. look, the -- if youre an independent voter, and lets say rugt now the independent voter is the key to the outcome in november, first of all, the entire field, the bachmanns, the perrys, the her man caines, youre co...

Momentum heading into the next early states. jon: well, most of those players that you just mentioned, the bachmanns, the perrys, on the chart, the graph, you know, it goes like this. the real clear politics graph, it goes up, and then it goes down. but all of those people as newt gingrich is falling, all of those other candidates seem to be coming up again. >> yeah. i mean, that is one of the consequences. weve seen this time and time again, and its totally unlike the race in 2008. we actually ...

>> so sort through. weve got a lot of numbers to talk about. david, talk about how these polls matter. weve seen the ups and downs, the bachmanns, the cains, the perrys. newts up now, some polls showing him going down. does it matter that he has such a commanding lead right now? >> i think it does because i think it represents consolidating an anti-romney vote against him. were just a couple of weeks away from iowa, and hes got that put together. and in a commanding way, hes got that put togethe...

Rich and chris were away at a basketball camp, summoned from the gym to see their father. >> my father is not a man to show a lot of emotion, but he was -- his eyes were teared up. >> took his glasses off, said your mother killed herself. she overdosed on drugs. >> jim, who was headed into the third grade, was the next to find out. >> it was pretty tough to handle at 8 years old. i used to have a recurring nightmare that she was in the hospital, and i would go up to the doctor and tell the docto...

Jim and emilys paternity. according to the perrys father, jim had been named for james foley. on her own, emily figured out her name was linked to foley, as well. >> his sisters name was emily. later, we found out that his mothers name was sheila. >> your name is emily sheila? >> emily sheila. >> his sister and his mother. >> his sister and his mother. yeah. that was shocking, too. >> still, the priest said there was no certainty that ritas two youngest children were his. >> good morning, mr. pe...

Himself had written in 1994 acknowledging his tragic involvement with an unknown woman, her death, and the possibility he had fathered children, foleys denials came to an end. >> i, of course, have to recognize i did. >> soon, the interview ended, too. >> this is something very personal, very confidential, very private. i dont think its an issue for public airing. >> amazing to watch. this is when we all start to say, this person was there when our mother died and knows firsthand the details of ...

The boston archdiocese paid the perrys an undisclosed sum, gave them an unqualified apology and called what father foley did exploitive, harmful, a violation of the sacred vow of celibacy and the trust that parishioners place in their priests. father foley remains on leave from his parish job and declined to speak to "dateline." so we turned one more time to that tape recorded conversation of father foleys voice and rita perrys words. >> your mother had a saying, based on time heals all wounds, ...

Meet the man himself, father foley. >> uh-huh. >> yes. >> the last person alive to talk to our mother. >> we had some questions. >> it had been more than five weeks since the perrys first learned of father james foleys intimate history with their mother, plenty of time to imagine what they might say to the man they believed could have saved her life. the boston archdiocese helped arrange a phone call between jim and father foley. that led to the face to face meeting. >> jim had promised father f...