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  A Legacy of Misconduct

Dallas Morning News
February 15, 2008

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/ DN-priesttimeline_15met.ART0.West.Edition1.45ee0d4.html

Here are key dates in the Rev. Philip Magaldi's career as a priest:

1990 – Hired in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese while under criminal investigation for embezzling from a church in Rhode Island.

1992 – Pleads guilty to embezzlement, with prosecutors saying he spent some of the money on boys. Serves a short prison sentence – then returns to duty, working with boys, in the Fort Worth Diocese.

1997 – Confidential Fort Worth church investigation finds him "guilty of sexual exploitation" after he admits paying an older teen to administer enemas. He denies sexual harassment allegations and remains on duty in North Richland Hills.

1998 – Church officials tell The Dallas Morning News that they have full confidence in Father Magaldi and that there have been no sexual misconduct allegations against him in Texas. Later, another man alleges enema-related abuse. Privately, Bishop Joseph Delaney tells Father Magaldi: "There is no way that – that I can defend myself before God or before the people of the diocese or before the world if ... [a reporter for The News], for instance, tomorrow morning, published all of this."

1999 – Bishop Delaney lets Father Magaldi return to duty and sees him make "a very inappropriate gesture" toward a fifth-grade altar boy. The bishop leaves him on duty for a few months, then removes him when more complaints emerge.

2000 – Bishop Delaney lets the priest work in Keller, where still more complaints surface. Among them, according to church records: Father Magaldi touched the buttocks of a teen – who was wearing a shirt touting a TV as "thin, attractive and available" – and said words to the effect of "You are not very thin back here."

Late 2000 or early 2001 – The priest is removed from ministry again. Soon, church officials get a report that he had "pedophilic material" on his computer but do not alert police. Father Magaldi moves to Florida and tries, with no known success, to work as a priest there.

2003 – He returns to Tarrant County and lives at a retirement home, where he celebrates Mass regularly.

2006 – The News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram win a court order unsealing the diocese's clergy-abuse records. New Bishop Kevin Vann orders Father Magaldi to cease all ministry and says he will ask the Vatican to defrock the priest.

2008 – The diocese says it has learned that the priest is HIV-positive.

 
 

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