In 1975, when Father Brendan Smyth was accused of molesting two young boys, Cardinal Sean Brady was present when the victims were coerced into signing oaths of silence. All told, Smyth went on to have a “prolific” career as a child rapist, abusing an estimated 100 kids. He died of a heart attack in 1997, after serving only one month in jail for his crimes. His victims were able to have the title “Reverend” removed from his gravestone, but apart from that, justice was never truly served.

Now, Cardinal Brady, the man who claims he did not have the authority to turn Smyth in to police, has refused to step down from his position even with mounting pressure from the public due to the rash of abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church. He seems to be under the impression he did nothing wrong, and he desperately wants to “maintain the momentum towards better child safeguarding” (cause it’s been working out great so far, buddy).

If you can’t even dismiss a guy who did nothing to stop a known child molester, how exactly is the Catholic Church on their way to help “purge” the plight of sexual predators from among their midst? It’s quite obvious no one is really taking this issue seriously. Brady should be in jail for what he did (or more specifically, what he didn’t do), but he won’t even do something as basic as stepping down as Cardinal. What makes people believe this corrupt institution will do anything to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening in the future?

So let me get this straight: the Vatican’s top American cleric was exposed in an abuse scandal, and they punished the guy who ousted him by canning him? Yeah, there is not conspiracy to conceal and protect child rapists in the Catholic Church… In other news, up is down, and wet is dry!

More pedophile priests are being exposed on an almost daily basis it seems, and from the look of things, I doubt we’re finished having to read about the terrible deeds of these sick fucks. Today’s pederast is Father Roger Vangheluwe, the Bishop of Bruges in Belgium, who stepped down recently after a commission was set up to investigate priestly abuse received a letter regarding offenses he had committed years ago.

Over the past decades, I asked for the forgiveness of him and his family,” added Mr Vangheluwe. “But the media storm of the past few weeks only reinforced his trauma. It was not tenable any more. I regret what I did and offer my most sincere apologies to the victim, his family, all the Catholic community and society.”

If you’re wondering why this pederast piece of shit isn’t in jail, it’s because the statute of limitations ran out some time ago, so he’s free to enjoy his life without having to worry about paying for his crimes. Instead of justice, his victim gets an apology, which sounds about as awesome as getting a “Cleveland steamer” from a homeless guy on your birthday.

Just another priest who will get to live out his days free from prosecution for his crimes, all thanks to Ratzinger’s informative memo which left specific instructions priests should not discuss any abuse with police until specifically 10 years after their 18th birthday. Of course, that had nothing to do with a systematic cover-up to protect pedophilia at the highest levels of power, right?

If you were wondering why the Church worked so diligently to cover up the abuse of pederast priests, you can bet a big part of the motivation is money (like so much in this world). The Guardian is reporting tithing is expected to drop significantly in Italy and other countries. Ever year, the Church makes about €900m in donations, but faced with the growing reality the head of their organization was helping protect known pedophiles from prosecution, the number is expected to drop significantly.

With many Catholics across Europe saying the scandals have robbed them of their faith, there is a risk that this year’s income could be much lower. In Germany, where church membership is registered and has a direct impact on church funds, pollsters for Focus magazine this month found that 26% of Catholics were reconsidering their religious allegiance.

Only 26% had their faith shaken by the systematic cover-up of child rape? Why is anyone still giving money to these monsters? There still hasn’t been any action taken against those responsible for raping kids, and the Vatican continues to affirm all of this is “petty gossip”, even as the evidence continues to mount. It’s like the captain of the Titanic assuring everyone the rumors circulating around of a collision with a gigantic iceberg are “petty gossip”, even as water is rushing into the cabins.

Slowly but surely, it looks as though the real scope of abuse by Catholic priests around the world is only slowly surfacing. Every other day, it seems as though a new pedophile is being exposed. The latest scandal comes from Brazil, which has more Roman Catholics than any other country in the world. The man in question, Luiz Marques Barbosa, was exposed when a TV station showed a sex tape of him with a 19 year old boy who has been under his employ for over 4 years, and he’s just one of many Latin American religious leaders currently under investigation.

Barbosa (who sounds like a villain in a cheesy Mario Van Peebles action romp) and two other priests are accused of abusing boys as young as 12 years of age. Barbosa continues to deny the fact he’s a pederast, although his only “defense” so far is a confusing jumble of inconsistencies; first, he claimed no abuse is going on, then he isn’t gay, followed immediately by accusing homosexuals of being the real cause of pedophilia, and finally ending by saying he would talk about this in confession only. Fuck I hate that garbage; this has become their hateful de-facto statement the Church makes every time someone mentions the fact that people who work for them are raping children. Even if there was a link between homosexuality and pedophilia (and trust me, there isn’t), the real question on everyone’s mind right now is why the head of the organization systematically sheltered known child rapists from prosecution, and why no one is doing anything about it. This whole business of blaming gays for the problem is nothing more than the typical Church M.O.: blame a scapegoat. If this was the 16th century, they would have just blamed the Jews for casting evil spells on them, and ordered a good old fashion massacre to get everyone’s mind off the real offenders.

It’s nice to see these pedophiles being exposed in religiously orthodox countries; it shows the power of the Church to silence these acts is seriously waning. It’s too early to tell how many more of these pieces of shit are going to be exposed, but it’s encouraging to think perhaps some measure of justice can be had here. To date, no one has actually been arrested, but my hope is the Brazilian government will grow some fucking balls and put abusers where they belong: behind heavy metal bars.