The Reverend Charles Newman, former president of Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia, was sentenced on Friday to three to six years in prison for stealing almost $1 million from the school, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
As if that isn’t bad enough, prosecutors say that Newman gave about $54,000 to Arthur Baselice III, once a student at the school, as “hush money” so he would keep quiet about their sexual relationship. Authorities contend that the abuse began when Baselice III was 16-year-old junior at the school. He graduated in 1996. Ten years later, on November 30, 2006, Baselice III died of an overdose in a drug house.
During Newman’s sentencing, the young man’s mother, Elaine Baselice, addressed the court. “He plied my teenage son with alcohol and drugs so that Arthur could be more easily abused,” she said, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. “Newman had me believe my son was full of demons. Standing in the courtroom today, I am faced with the true demon!”
Newman was not charged with sexual abuse because the statute of limitations had expired. He was charged only for the theft. The priest spoke briefly during the hearing in disjointed remarks, but did not apologize to the Baselices or explain what happened to the money. The court didn’t buy whatever he said.
“Your explanations are sorely lacking ”¦ and that’s putting it mildly,” Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi said. “Your explanations are bizarre.”
Reading the coverage of this case, it seemed to me that the Reverend Charles Newman fit the profile of a sociopath.
More info:
Philadelphia Inquirer: Ex-principal gets 3-6 years for theft
Philadelphia Daily News: ”˜Detestable’ conduct nets priest 3-6 years
Child abuse in Ireland
The Newman case was bad, but not nearly as shocking as another story now in the news—the endemic rape and abuse of thousands of children in Ireland, from the 1930s to the 1990s, by Catholic priests and nuns.
On May 20, a 2,600-page report by Ireland’s Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was released. It found that children in 250 church-run schools, orphanages and other institutions, supported by taxpayer funds, were routinely abused and molested. Catholic religious orders ran more than 50 workhouse-style reform schools. One of the orders, the Christian Brothers, which ran several boys’ institutions, harbored serial child molesters and sadists on its staff.
The report took nine years to complete. Thousands of still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, testified, some traveling back to Ireland from America or Australia.
“A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys,” the report stated. “Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.”
At the time, however, the religious orders were concerned only about preventing scandal, not the danger to the children. According to the Associated Press, “The management did not listen to or believe children when they complained of the activities of some of the men who had responsibility for their care,” the commission found. “At best, the abusers were moved, but nothing was done about the harm done to the child. At worst, the child was blamed and seen as corrupted by the sexual activity, and was punished severely.”
The report may not lead to prosecution of the perpetrators because in 2004, the Christian Brothers successfully sued to prevent them from being named. “Most leaders of religious orders have rejected the allegations as exaggerations and lies, and testified to the commission that any abuses were the responsibility of often long-dead individuals,” AP reported.
The Irish government has paid 12,000 abuse survivors an average of $90,000 each, a total of more than $1 billion, and another 2,000 claims are pending. But in 2001, Irish Catholic leaders cut a deal with the government that capped its contribution to the claims at $175 million—a fraction of the total cost.
More info:
The Independent, London: Thousands were raped in Irish reform schools
Boston.com: Catholic Church shamed by Irish abuse report
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: Executive summary
Betrayal by Spirit
In The Betrayal Bond, author Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D., specifically discusses how abuse by clergy affects victims. “It is generally agreed that the impact on survivors of sexual abuse by spiritual leaders is greater than survivors of other forms of power abuse,” he writes. “Since part of coping with trauma is spiritual, sexual abuse by a spiritual leader further complicates the recovery process.”
Why is this so? Carnes writes:
Every journey or recovery depends on the survivor coming to a point where all that person has gone through means something.
Betrayal by the spirit means that the person who betrays the victim also plays a critical role in the resources the victim has for defining meaning. The victim’s spiritual path is blocked. The fundamental question all victims have to answer for themselves is, ”˜Why do bad things happen to good people?’ It is a far more troubling question when the cause of the problem is supposed to be the resource for the answer.
Close to home
For me, all of this scandal hits very close to home. My cousin was abused by a priest. His was one of the early cases—he got a settlement at least 15 years ago. I don’t know how much it was, and I don’t know exactly what happened. According to the terms of the settlement, he’s not allowed to talk about it.
But I do know this: My cousin’s life is a disaster. His marriage fell apart. He was never able to hold a steady job. He spent his settlement money buying drinks for friends in bars. He became addicted to heroin. He assaulted his elderly father. His brothers want nothing to do with him.
When my cousin and two other men first pursued their claims against the priest, his mother, my aunt, took the word of the church over the word of her son. She went to her grave believing that my cousin lied about the entire thing.
I wonder if my aunt could believe today’s news.
Slimone: You suggest that a major shift may be required, and behind that I hear a hint that you believe that may also be on the way.
I offer that as we raise consciousness in what we write here, we move forward to a point in time when enough people may be aware to actually help that shift happen.
I grieve for the child you were, and the imprinting you are working to overcome. I celebrate that you show up here and add to the knowledge base that can lead us into wisdom.
Passing through,
Let me clarify—people who have the DESIRE for children and DO NOT SEXUALLY PREY ON CHILDREN are NOT psychopaths, I was only referring to those who DO PREY ON CHILDREN.
Humans have all kinds of predispositions (genetic and otherwise) to do bad things. Those that have NO CONSCIENCE and DO THOSE THINGS are psychopaths. People who HAVE A CONSCIENCE and do NOT do those things are not psychopaths.
Believe me, I have had the DESIRE to murder someone. Because I have a conscience though I did NOT do it. Mty son, who is a PSYCHOPATH had that same desire and DID MURDER.
So no, I do NOT equate people’s desires making them psychopaths, but only those who ACT ON THOSE DESIRES.
Slimone,
There was a man in Arkansas accused (and later convicted) of rape, who WAS castrated by a band of men who were never caught or identified. He went to prison and started his pity ploy, and eventually 8 or 9 years later freeded by the governor, and within a MONTH he had raped and killed another woman.
First off, RAPE is not a crime of sex, but of violence. Also castration of an ADULT male doesn’t mean always that he can’t “act” physically sexually, and doesn’t stop his depraved desires.
Child molestation/rape is for me, a crime that should be severely punished and they should be kept out of society permanently—Is devil’s island still available? The problem with incest-child molestation is that FAMILIES HIDE THE SECRET and the children involved are made to keep the secret as well, which many times, –,most times?–they do for years and years. Not only being molested but shamed inito keeping this “dirty family secret” makes it even worse.
Yes, I think these people who do this are PSYCHOPATHS, but even if i am wrong about this and they are NOT psychopaths, THEY SHOULD STILL BE PUNISHED SEVERELY. Dr. Anna Salter, PhD who is one of the best known experts in this, in her book, “Predators” states that they ABSOLUTELY cannot be reformed—THAT ALONE sounds to me like they are PSYCHOPATHS. They act on their desires without any chance of STOPPING the behavior no matter what the punishment is. Sounds like a PPD to me. NO REMORSE, and as far as making up an “excuse” so they “won’t feel ashamed”–Ps do that all the time, make up the excuses that is. But they do NOT feel ashamed because that is not in them.
I stand by my belief that ALL PSYCHOPATHS are predators, and anyone who preys on children, KNOWING IT IS WRONG (if they didn’t know it wasn’t wrong, they wouldn’t hide it) are Psychopaths.
Dear Slimone, my compassion goes out to you for what you have suffered and my admiration for how you are recovering!
Oxy…I like the idea that you can read the Bible for yourself…and what you find there is not all non-judging and “forgive and forget”…WWJD?…Matthew 18:5-6:
“but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”(RSV)
I think this same Jesus reportedly drove some moneychangers out of the temple…with a whip?
Hi to all – I have been reading this site for a good while but this is my first post.
I’d like to comment on the various postings regarding clergy abuse in an Irish context.
First of all, a lot of people with sexual desires for children seek positions that put them in close proximity to children. The more that relationship is one of trust the better it is to use that position to manipulate and abuse children in an intimate setting with less fear of being caught. So, teachers, PE coaches, clergy, social workers, home care workers, etc. are all potential target professions.
The factors that makes the clergy sexual abuse in Ireland and elsewhere stand out are 1) The scale of the abuse within one organisation 2) The fact that it continued for so long, the Ryan report regarding Ireland covers the 1930s up until 1996, 3) Given the profession or vocation of the guilty, the utter betrayal of the people by this organisation
In the case of Ireland, what is even more insidious is the auxiliary role that the rest of the clergy, who were themselves not actively involved, played in protecting their fellow priests. This was done both in a deliberate sense, (in that the person was known to have committed the crime but was only transferred to a different location) and also in the sense that they were allowed to continue preying on young people because those with the power to do something about it could not believe that an adult could prey on children in that way. In this I am talking about the sexual abuse only. Physical violence, even psychological violence, though they would not have called it such, was known, accepted and even more wide spread. It was, to a greater or lesser extent, the norm in those days. So was less likely to be seen as abhorrent, no matter what our own sensibilities may say about it now but even within this there was behaviour that was viewed as abnormal in terms of the extent of the violence committed.
What is also certain is that the Vatican were aware of these pedophile priests and the abuse the children were under going and chose to cover it up rather than help the children.
Today, the church is doing far more to rectify this problem within its ranks than ever before but, considering it has done nothing in the past, this isn’t necessarily a lot. It is still trying to cover up the extent of the problem, even post Ryan report. It is still trying to protect its members, even the guilty. It is still trying to get out of its moral, if not legal, obligation to redress the damage in what ever way it can. In short, the one specific demographic group mentioned in the Bible as innocent, “suffer little children”, has been betrayed and abused by the biggest group purporting to be the living embodiment of the bible’s message. There could be no greater past and continuing betrayal.
The Irish government were not coerced or out maneuvered by the Church, unless you include the years of religious indoctrination that the government ministers were exposed to as children and adults, as coercion. Personally I do but that is neither here nor there. In other words, the government ministers were only too happy to forgive the Church, to reassure it that they would be OKAY. To ensure that the Churches financial liability would be relatively small and that it would be the taxpayers, the very people the Church had betrayed, who would pay financially for the Churches crimes. This was and is a further betrayal perpetrated both by the Church and the Irish government.
Any group, entity or organisation that sets itself up as a superior authority risks being poisoned by the very thing it is seeking to fight. Given that potential priests were not screened for anti-social behaviour patterns. Given that one of the defining rules of the Church, belief where there is no proof, encourages a non-questioning mindset, given the Churches stance as a superior moral authority, the Church itself is fertile ground for pedophiles, psychopaths and narcissists.
The same premise applies to any group or entity, including countries. Any time someone or some thing says “I know better than you”, “you need to follow my example” there is a huge risk of corruptive behaviour. Once might say that any absolute conviction in moral or physical superiority sets in motion the environment necessary for abuse to thrive.
Anyone who thinks that good people don’t do bad things, I would urge you to read “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil”. Admittedly, sexual deviancy is not specifically mentioned but it is a scientific approach to the idea that, given the right set of circumstances, the majority of people are capable of behaving in ways that they themselves would have seen as morally wrong.
Dear Nemo,
I am not sure why you found this site, but I am soooo glad you are here. Your above post is very good and shows a great deal of thought and study on this subject. thank you for posting it.
I’m glad you are here reading as knowledge of this sort of thing is necessary to spread the word to others who are or have been in such situations, the more the knowledge spreads, the better people can protect themselves and their children from these evil monsters.
Welcome to Love Fraud! Hope to see more of your posts.
On my lunch break and thought I’d check out the early posts…..
Rune: I don’t know if I feel like this awakening is coming. I REALLY want it to, and I have some small quiet voice that believes it is possible. And yes, as you said, THIS PLACE, here at LF is a goldmine of awakening and real transformation. Agreed, and am tremendously grateful for the discovery of all of you. And thank-you for your well wishes and compassion for my story. I really appreciate the understanding.
Oxy: I have read the same thing–that castration doesn’t do the trick, that the problem is, as you said, in the mind. I think I was more having a fantasy of them stringed up and me with a dull butter knife, carving away. GROSS! Good thing I have a conscience. Because like all of us here I have good ‘reason’ to feel mad as hell, and not want to take it anymore. Thank-you, also, for your compassionate understanding.
Nemo: Thanks for the energy you put into your ideas. Very well done, and informative.
Stargazer: I missed your post the first time through. I think this ex-tox was/is N as well. Has some antisocial tendencies, and lives outside the cultural ‘norm’, but is by and large a malignant N. I could SO relate to your getting ready for bed clothing. I heard….’you need to walk more sexy when you get up in the middle of the night to pee’. For months, after I went NC (and ocassionally still) I think about how I ‘look’ getting up to pee. CRA-ZY-mak-ing.
Nemo,
Thank you for this new insight:
” Any time someone or some thing says “I know better than you”, “you need to follow my example” there is a huge risk of corruptive behaviour. Once might say that any absolute conviction in moral or physical superiority sets in motion the environment necessary for abuse to thrive.”
This mindset has been present in every abusive situation I’ve ever been in. Until you said it, I hadn’t recognized this rather obvious (in retrospect) correlation.
Thanks again.
Unfortunately your cousin has been subjected to a path that the hundreds of millions of childhood sexual abuse survivors worldwide only know as their personal reality. It has been proven that survivors of these acts predominantly exist on the margins of society because of the abuse they have had to endure. They become disconnected and desensitized as a way of coping with the memories and the flashbacks that haunt them every day. The Let Go…Let Peace Come In Foundation is a newly formed nonprofit with a mission to help heal and support adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse so that they can begin to reconnect to societies and live a healthy and peaceful life. Please visit http://www.letgoletpeacecomein.org to see how you can help make a difference.
I am a victim of a sociopath. I am also a devout Roman Catholic. Let me state first: There are some very bad Priests. Moreover, there are very bad some very bad mechanics too.
The cloth can hid an abundance of habits. The Church is Gods arm on earth. If you believe in good and evil, then you must believe that Satan would use it as a tool to undermine God. It is pure tactics. I am so very sorry that this happened. But my faith in God and some very good priests who are helping me through my first exposure to Hell have shown me the truth. Have faith in good and God and you will experience better people. Poo can be found in any place including the Church, but
the good instincts God gave you will guide you. God Bless you and your family. I hope you get healed. Also remember, Christ
himself was betrayed with a kiss!