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LTEXAS
FORT WORTH -- A priest whose parishioners were reminded of his embezzlement conviction is vowing to stay on the job, while another, who has left the diocese, is the subject of a church investigation. Fr. Philip Magaldi, associate pastor in a parish northeast of Fort Worth, received a standing ovation from parishioners after saying news reports would not force him to leave his parish church. In a letter distributed Sunday Mass at every church in the 28-county Fort Worth Diocese, Bp. Joseph Delaney wrote that Magaldi had been honest about the pending embezzlement charge in 1990 when he was hired from the diocese in Providence, RI.. Magaldi is not allowed to handle any finances for the church, but he has never been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior. Although both Magaldi and Fr. Thomas Teczar had been suspended in other dioceses, Delaney hired them anyway. Delaney wrote parishioners that he would not have accepted Teczar had he been fully informed about the priest's past. Teczar, who left the Fort Worth diocese in 1993, is now in Massachusetts where he is no longer serving as a priest. He faces a civil lawsuit filed in 1996 by a 44-year-old Massachusetts man who says Teczar sexually abused him 27 years ago. His bishop in Massachusetts wrote some dioceses about other allegations of sexual misconduct against Teczar. 8/18 Associated Press