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.
Yes, church’s are great places for Sociopaths to hide. It’s especially bad in a cult that pretends to be a religion; a cult that started out as a way for an abusive Sociopath to marry and have sex with 31 women and girls. Some of the girls were as young as 14. I’m talking about Joseph Smith and Mormonism.
The Mormons are so wealthy because they encourage all of their members to earn a lot of money and receive a lot of education. They are then required to give 10% (before taxes) to the “church” (cult). As a result, when all of these sex abuse cases come up, the Mormons pay millions to settle out of court, to hide it from the public. They do everything they can to appear to be perfect. All of their money goes to PR and unwise investments. They only pay 3.5% to charity, which is where most Mormons assume it all goes. They don’t research this or anything else or question this because then they would be considered an “apostate” and would get in trouble with their leaders.
My ex is a Mormon. I was raised Mormon and as a result, my family thinks I’m going to hell. This made it extra easy for my ex to isolate me from my family.
If any of you are curious about very nasty abuse of Spirituality and Priesthood, I invite you to check out http://www.exmormon.org There even were some lively discussions about Narcissism on the board. If you do a seach on “abuse”, see how much information comes up. The amazing part is that it’s only kept in rotation on the board for 2 weeks. It’s a really big deal within the Mormon cult because there is so much secrecy.
Edit:
My family doens’t think I’m going to hell for being Mormon. They think I’m going to hell for not being Mormon. I worded my post incorrectly. My whole family is Mormon. They were pioneers who came from Missouri to Utah. My roots go all the way back to Joe Smith.
Oh and I’m a victim of this kind of abuse. My much older brother was considered a priest within the the Mormon “church” while he raped me. I told my bishop in my congregation about it and he told me to forgive him. No call to my parents or to social services. Nothing. He told me to make sure that my skirts always came past my knees and that I never wore sleeveless clothing, as the rapes would be my sin if I did. Otherwise, my job was to forgive him and forget about it. This is pretty normal within the Mormon cult.
OMG Jill,
that is so horrible.
I’m really having a problem with my church and their behavior as well. I have a prayer book that says we must never criticize priests. If they do wrong, we can only pray for them. WTF?
No wonder so much sex abuse goes on. Don’t they realize that this violence is cyclical? That it begets more violence? We must never allow them to preach ANYTHING to us without sound, reasoning and logic to back it up. The only faith we need to have is faith in God’s love. Beyond that, it can all be twisted and warped.
Never trust the hierchy in any organization. Most P’s have already figured out what they can and can’t get away with. If you want help, go to the mob. They probably have more compassion. 🙁
Ok I don’t want to offend anyone here either, but the problem here is monumental affecting Churches of all denominations. With that said, I am not a big fan of Catholicism. First of all, the Church did not start there (Rome), nor would it be a good place to do so. I know God works in mysterious ways, but to say that the Church began at Rome where they hanged, beheaded, and ripped apart many in the early Church including the leaders flies in the face of common sense. And how about this for common sense- allowing a celibate priest to give counseling, advice to married couples? What in the hell do they know about it? I should stop, but read the Bible sometime (1 Timothy 4) as it does say a leader should be the husband of one wife. And it also states that those who “forbid to marry” have their conscience seared with a hot iron. How is that for not having any empathy or conscience? Sounds like a description of psycopathy. I know I am a sinner as we all are, but I am in favor of evaluating religion, not just accepting it as “the faith of our fathers”. I can’t imagine what it might be like to go through abuse at the hands of a spiritual leader. It is doubly worse because of the body/mind/spirit connection. But as in any case, that too can be overcome, conquered, even though the road may be long.
Guys, I too was raised and taught by a “repressive” group who breathed “hell fire and brimstone” to any “sinner” (in other words, anyoone who didn’t agree with THEM)
Unfortunately, since “forever” people have PERSECUTED each other for “not believing in my god, my way” and it has not changed, and I don’t see that it EVER WILL CHANGE.
It doesn’t matter what sect of what religion you “believe in” or none, someone is going to want to “hang, draw and quarter” you, or slam airplanes into your twin towers because they see you as “sinful” or “bad” and it is okay in the name of whatever god they believe in to kill or persecute you because you don’t believe what they do.
It isn’t just “right wing fundamentalists” or Catholics or Muslins, it is MANY IF NOT MOST FAITHS. Some people are becoming more tolerant than others, but NOT everyone by any stretch of teh imagination.
I now some very sincere Mormons, I know some very sincere Muslims and I know some fundamental Christians who oare sincere and LOVING, but I also know plenty of every catagory that are bitter hateful people.
My egg donor’s “teaching” and bitterness and control and her legalistic thinking about religion almost turned me away from God all together, but thank God not. I now have a relationship with a loving father, not an angry bitter diety who asks the egg donor if I “meet their criteria” to not to to hell.
Jill, I am so sorry that you had to endure this kind of behavior from your brother of all people and to have the BLAME nailed to your chest instead of on to your brother where it belonged is an EMOTIONAL RAPE equal with the physical rape in my opinion. to do so in the name of “forgiveness” is a TRIPLE assault in my opinion as well.
Forgiveness does NOT mean, in my opinion that I have to “pretend it never happened” and “act like it never happened” around that person who would do such a thing.
To me it means getting the bitterness out of my own heart, but when you have NOT BEEN VALIDATED it makes that difficult to do. I have eventually done it, but it was VERY DIFFICULT, but I got the bitterness out of my heart for ME, for for them. I idon’t want to let that bittereness eat at my soul, and I can VALIDATE MYSELF—-those that would condemn me, let them go on their way. I do NOT need them in my life. It is difficult when it is your family, your parents, that you counted on to protect you and they failed. You did not deserve that Jill, but the blame is NOT yours. (((hugs))))) and my prayers for your peace.
Hmmm…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35243272/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/
This woman, Ms Silsby, strikes me as an interesting case. In my observations of “leaders” within Evangelical, Baptist and Charismatic Churches, I’ve witnessed quite a few who followed her pattern.
These charmers had a history of boundary violations, left a trail of victims, routinely broke laws, had piles of unpaid debt, were the subject of multiple civil suits, and yet they still had followers.
It’s hard to understand why churches don’t recognize these characters on sight, since occurrences of fraud and abuse perpetuated by them are so frequent. You’d think someone would catch on.
More:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1067267.html
As someone else noted:
“shows a flagrant disregard for Haitian Law, International Law and pure Commmon Sense but is supported by their actions before, during and after the “abductions.” To be clear:
1. They do not have an orphanage in DR. A hotel “to be renovated” is not an orphanage. They have no experience. Their organization was formed 1 year ago and isn’t even registered as a non-profit or adoption agency.
2. The children were not orphans, many have parents. They should know better than to take children regardless of whether they were given to them by the parents. THEY KNEW IT WAS WRONG, who wouldn’t.
Their own website outlines their plan to round up 100 Haitian children. What is most alarming is that they most likely would have returned for more since they were only able to take 33 because of the size of the bus.
3. The children that were involved were as young as 2 months old. By the way, that child suffered from dehydration and had to be hospitalized.
4. Their own website states the intent for these children to be adopted and how that would be done.
They were advised both before and during this act that it was illegal and ill-advised.
5. Lastly, they bribed a Haitian Police officer to aid in this plan, who is now in custody. They got some paperwork for the DR Embassy, clearly they knew they needed the authization of DR authorities to enter DR, but not the Haitian embassy to leave the country with the children?
I don’t think they overlooked anything, they simply were intent on abducting defensely children of families in despair and to take advantage of the travesty/chaos in Haiti.”
Elizabeth, we have of course had lots of coverage of the Haiti disaster here in the uk; I was relieved that from the get -go there was lots of discussion on the radio ect. of the possibility of these kind of activities happening. where there is vulnerablity there will be sharks circling. It was discussed in the media here from day one. And I am glad this case has hit the head lines early on, I hope the awareness this case raises will put other predatory people or organisations off creeping around ‘under the radar’ trying to do the same and everyone else on their guard. I also hope it brings home the message to genuine well wishers that due processes are usually established to protect the vulnerable and innocent, not to hinder help.