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	Former R.I. Priest HIV Positive Providence Journal February 15, 2008 http://www.projo.com/news/content/father_magaldi_02-15-08_25918EN_v61.39a1f2b.html FORT WORTH, Texas — A priest accused of sexually abusing at least five minors in Rhode Island and Texas is HIV positive, Catholic diocese officials said yesterday. Pat Svacina, a spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Worth, said diocese officials first learned last week that the Rev. Philip A. Magaldi — who had been removed as a pastor in 1999 and is in the process of being laicized — could be HIV positive. HIV is a retrovirus that may lead to AIDS. Fort Worth Vicar General Michael F. Olson then got verbal confirmation from Magaldi as well as a letter from his doctor saying Magaldi is being treated for HIV but not AIDS, Svacina said. Based on private interviews, Svacina said diocese officials believe Magaldi has been HIV positive since at least 2003. The diocese does not have access to Magaldi's medical records because of federal privacy laws. The Fort Worth and Providence dioceses, where Magaldi had previously served, said yesterday they are alerting those people who have filed claims of sexual abuse against Magaldi. All together, six complaints have been filed, three in Rhode Island and three in Fort Worth. Olson said Fort Worth diocese officials also notified parishes where Magaldi had served in Texas. Magaldi was removed from active priesthood in 1999 after sexual-misconduct allegations emerged in Rhode Island, where he served from 1960 to 1990, and Fort Worth, where he served from 1990 to 1992 and 1993 to 1999. He was out of the ministry while serving a brief stint in prison in 1992 for stealing more than $123,400 from St. Anthony Church in North Providence. Authorities said he had spent some of the stolen money for tropical vacations with adolescent boys and once gave a teenager he met in a park enough money to buy a car. He served eight months before being paroled. In an unrelated case, Magaldi also was accused of lying in the Newport case of Claus von Bulow, a Danish-born socialite accused of trying to kill his heiress wife with insulin injections, to help him secure a new trial. The charges against Magaldi were later dropped. Von Bulow was acquitted of the charges in his second trial. In 2006, Magaldi was removed from all ministries, and the Fort Worth diocese started the process of laicization — a procedure commonly called "defrocking" by which a priest is returned to the status of layman. Svacina said Bishop Kevin Vann of the Fort Worth Diocese is expected to fly to Rome on Monday to ask the Vatican to expedite the laicization process. Michael K. Guilfoyle, spokesman for the Diocese of Providence, said the diocese "fully supports the efforts of the Diocese of Fort Worth to seek dismissal of Fr. Magaldi from the priesthood" and intends to write a letter to that end. Magaldi, 71, lives in a private retirement center and receives health coverage and a pension from the diocese. No decision has been made on whether the diocese will seek to rescind the retirement benefits, Svacina said. Magaldi has previously said he is innocent of the sexual-abuse allegations. The first allegation against Magaldi in Rhode Island emerged in 1998. Two more complaints were filed in 2002 and last year, according to Guilfoyle. "Despite the fact that Father Magaldi was no longer incardinated in the Diocese of Providence," Guilfoyle said yesterday in a statement, "our Office of Education and Compliance investigated the allegations and then shared the findings with officials in the Diocese of Fort Worth." THE FIRST ALLEGATION in Fort Worth emerged in October 2006. Two more complaints have been filed since then. After the first allegation of molestation in the late 1990s, The Dallas Morning News reported, church investigators in Texas found him "guilty of sexual exploitation" and he was barred from supervising altar boys but allowed to continue as chaplain of the Fort Worth diocesan Boy Scout program. After the second, he was suspended, but returned to part-time ministry after his accuser died; he was accused of misconduct with boys at his new job and removed again. Still, in 2000 he celebrated Mass with Pope John Paul II at the pontiff's private chapel at the Vatican. Parishioners argued that if he was fit to share the altar with the pope, he ought to be able to preach in North Richland Hills, Texas. He was allowed to continue his ministry at the North Richland Hills retirement home where he was living until August 2006, when a new bishop revoked all his priestly powers. But The Morning News reported in November that he had defied the bishop's orders and remained in ministry at the home. Also that year, a pastor at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in North Richland Hills apologized to the congregation amid reports that five years earlier he didn't tell the 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. A message left for Magaldi earlier this month at the North Richland Hills retirement home where he is believed to be living was not returned. But Jerry Koller, a friend and former parishioner who described himself as Magaldi's caregiver, said Wednesday that Magaldi is in "too weak condition" to continue his ministry. Koller said Magaldi suffers from dementia and has had a series of strokes that have affected his eyesight and left him legally blind. Sexual-misconduct complaints in Rhode Island can be reported to Robert McCarthy, director of the diocese's Office of Education and Compliance, at (401) 941-0760. In Fort Worth, Texas, the number to report such complaints is (817) 560-3300, ext. 201.
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