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National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 1999

The measure moved quickly through the House, coming to a vote just a week after Rep. Larry Julian introduced it. A two-hour debate preceded the vote.

Publisher Larry Flynt appears at Georgetown

A Washington bishop called it "indefensible" that Georgetown University would allow a campus appearance by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who spoke April 30 about the First Amendment.

Flynt, whose appearance at the Jesuit-run university was sponsored by a student group called the Lecture Fund, told students he does not care if they agree with him personally, as long as they think about what the First Amendment issues he raises mean to them.

Washington Auxiliary Bishop William E. Lori said allowing Flynt to speak was "unbelievable" and "indefensible."

"Mr. Flynt's appearance has nothing to do with free speech, as some may claim," Lori said in a statement issued later that day. "No Catholic university should provide a platform which furthers the degradation of women, immoral behavior and the antireligious opinions Mr. Flynt represents. This is utterly contrary to the Catholic identity of Georgetown University." A press release on Lori's statement noted he was speaking on behalf of Cardinal James A. Hickey of Washington, who was out of the country.

Fort Worth priest retires amid sex abuse charges

Fr. Philip Magaldi, the controversial pastor at St. John the Apostle Church in North Richmond Hills, Texas, has been accused of sexual abuse and has retired from active ministry, Fort Worth diocesan officials announced April 25.

Magaldi, who was accused by a 35-year old Massachusetts man of years of abuse dating to the 1970s, vehemently denies the charge.

"I view this as an attempt to blackmail the diocese of Fort Worth and to embarrass the church I have served for 38 years and four months," said Magaldi. "I have loved children all my life and am repelled by the thought that anyone would think I would perpetrate the horrible things I am accused of."

Magaldi pleaded guilty in 1992 to stealing more than $120,000 from his former parish in North Providence, R.I. Prosecutors said he used some of the money for tropical vacations with teenage boys and once gave a boy he had met in a park enough money to buy a car.

A Boston-based advocate for clergy sex abuse victims said Magaldi never should have been allowed to work in the Fort Worth diocese. "If the allegations are tree, then Magaldi joins a growing number of priests who have been transferred to rural communities in Texas after having molested youths in Massachusetts," said Phil Saviano, leader of the New England chapter of the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The Dallas Morning News previously identified two other Massachusetts priests who were allowed to work as priests in Texas after being accused of abuse in New England.

Cuban-Americans end 47-day hunger strike

Four Cuban-Americans have ended a 47-day hunger strike that shed light on the U.S. government's indefinite detention of thousands of immigrants.