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Feb 14, 2008 3:55 pm US/Central
FW Catholic Diocese Says Accused Priest Has HIV
FORT WORTH (AP) ―
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Former Catholic priest Philip Magaldi has confirmed he is HIV positive.
KTVT / KTXA
A former priest accused of sexually abusing at least five minors in two states is HIV positive, Catholic diocese officials said Thursday.
Last week, a leader in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth heard someone mention that the Rev. Philip A. Magaldi has the virus that causes AIDS, said diocese spokesman Pat Svacina. The leader, the Rev. Michael F. Olson, then got verbal confirmation from Magaldi as well as a letter from his doctor who said he has HIV but not AIDS, Svacina said.
The diocese then alerted the alleged victims and the parishes where Magaldi served for nearly four decades, Svacina said.
Fort Worth diocese officials said they believe that Magaldi has been HIV positive since at least 2003.
Magaldi, 71, lives in a retirement center and diocese officials declined to disclose where. He has previously said he was innocent of the sexual abuse allegations, for which he has not been charged.
He was removed as a priest in 1999 amid claims of sexual misconduct in Providence, R.I., where he served from 1960-90, and the Fort Worth area, where he served from 1990-92 and 1993-99.
He was out of the ministry while serving a brief stint in prison in 1992 after embezzling about $200,000 from his Rhode Island parish, officials said. In an unrelated case, Magaldi also was accused of lying in the case of Claus von Bulow, who was acquitted of trying to kill his heiress wife.
In 2006, a pastor at a North Richland Hills Church apologized to the congregation amid reports that five years earlier he didn't tell police after learning of inappropriate material involving minors on the computer used by Magaldi, who led the church the last six years of his ministry.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged the dioceses to aggressively seek out potential victims. He said it's impossible to know the number of victims because many children and teens abused by priests don't ever come forward.
"There's a real chance of someone suffering not only a horrific childhood trauma but also a current adult infection because of this priest," Clohessy said.
Magaldi is one of six priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth accused of abusing minors, according to 700 pages of previously secret files that were part of a sexual abuse lawsuit settled in 2005. The documents were released by a judge last year.
In Rhode Island, three separate allegations were reported in 1998, 2002 and last year against Magaldi.
Bishop Kevin Vann of the Fort Worth diocese is flying to Rome next week to ask the Vatican to expedite the process of having Magaldi defrocked, which would remove him from clerical status, Svacina said.
Magaldi's earlier troubles included a 1985 indictment on perjury and obstruction charges for allegedly lying in a sworn statement in support of von Bulow to help him get a new trial. The charges against Magaldi were dropped in 1987.
In Von Bulow's second trial in 1985, he was acquitted of trying to kill his wife with insulin injections at their Newport, R.I., mansion.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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