Bruce Campbell, by all accounts, seemed like an ideal school principle. Parents described him as dedicated and caring. He worked at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Calgary, Alb. for over 30 years, serving at the principle there. Just imagine the shock parents must have felt when they recently found out in an email that Campbell had been arrested in a sting operation for possession of child pornography.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had intercepted a number of skype messages that contained child abuse pictures, and by tracing the IP address, they were able to identify Campbell as the recipient. He was arrested and released under strict conditions, and is waiting for his trial come May 10th.

The Catholic School Board released a statement with the usual “safety of the children is out primary concern” bullshit they’ve spewed a billion times before, always after one of their countless employees get caught doing something horrible.

Police are asking anyone who may have been a victim of abuse by this man to come forward. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire, and a 30 year career means that thousands of kids were under his watch. It would be a miracle if there had never been any impropriety. It was already more than enough possessing abuse material from children who will grow up scared for life.

The final message from one of the investigators was worded strangely, to say the least:

“This is a great time for parents, families, teachers, the students, to be aware that this is an increasingly occurring offence,” Sgt. Auger said.

It wasn’t tragic enough that the name Bruce Campbell has been sullied by this pervert; the investigator assuring us that it’s a great time to be aware that this is getting more common is not encouraging. So, if you’re a fan of Evil Dead, and kids having a normal childhood, then you are shit out of luck my friend.

Imagine that you dedicate your whole life to one organization. You give countless hours of your time, and make huge sacrifices to work there. Then, one day, you find out that a coworker of yours has been sexually abusing your own child. Now, can you guess what happened next? Was it a) the organization punished the culprit, b) they apologized to the family and gave some form of compensation, or c) did nothing? Well, if the organization is the catholic church in Lafayette, then you do option d) throw the child rapist a goodbye party, and use your massive wealth to pressure the state’s supreme court to get rid of laws that would give a legal window to allow such institutions to get sued by victims. You can’t make this stuff up.

Michael Guidry, now 78, later pleaded guilty to abusing Oliver Peyton, who was an altar boy. And after Guidry’s church honored him with a goodbye luncheon for which the diocese was forced to apologize, he received a seven-year prison sentence.

That’s not all. When Scott Payton found out about the molestation, he did something most priests refuse to do: he actually bothered to do something about it. First, in 2021, he secured a $350,000 judgement against the Lafayette diocese, a paltry sum for sure, but more than most victims tend to get. Secondly, he actually fought against the churches effort to repeal laws that would allow victims to seek compensation, calling them unconstitutional. As a reward for his hard work, Payton was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Keep in mind that the Church has never excommunicated any of their members for actually raping kids. That’s forgivable. But going after the Churches money? That’s going too far! We’re non believers, so something as silly as excommunication might seem pretty trivial to us. It is a spiritual death sentence for believers, however. Payton correctly argued that such actions send a chilling message to people who have been abused: talk about it, and we’ll make sure you go to hell.

Now, what find sad in all of this is Payton hasn’t discarded the very beliefs that created the problem in the first place. He still thinks that his belief system can still be redeemed somehow.

“[This] has deeply shaken my faith and trust in the institution to which I have dedicated a significant portion of my life,” Peyton said in his resignation email to Deshotel, which was shared with the Guardian. “This decision is not a rejection of my faith in God or my commitment to living a life guided by Christian principles. Instead, it reflects … a desire to distance myself from an institution that, currently, falls short of the values it professes.”

Falls short? Desires a distance? This guy just admitted that the church does nothing but throw parties for child rapists, and this is considered “falling short”? You have to have your head buried in the sand pretty deep to consider an institution that cast you into the fires of hell for daring to ask for accountability as “falling short”. Does it need to also be engaged in money laundering, or murder to finally get off this dog and pony show? I got news for you: they do that, and much worse, and yet, there are still millions of people convinced that these men are holy. It’s frankly baffling.

So note to self: these guys can rape your own kid, and that still won’t shake your faith in them. Good to know there is no level of depravity low enough for the rest of the world to open their eyes in the face of such fucking evil.

We pay so much attention to all the catholic priests that abuse young children that we often forget that they aren’t the only creepy group of religious weirdos. More and more, stories of abuse at the hands of nuns are coming out, encouraged by all of the outpouring of support that others had received due to the #MeToo movement.

For a long time, even the support group that had sprung up to support victims, SNAP, which stood for “Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, only mentions the male abusers. Women often being considered caregivers, and of their  stature in society is a perfect double act for those wishing to escape scrutiny.

Stories of abuse by priests are gruesome, but there is something particularly twisted about the way female abusers try to create “love” narratives that I have not heard before. It adds a whole other dimension. Not only are these victims sexual lives ruined, but that foundational element of loving a partner is also tainted.

“It was abuse. I interpreted it as love,” she said of the sexual relationship she had as a student with a Catholic school teacher, who later joined a religious order.
As a teenager, she spent much of her free time with her teacher. Their bond was so noticeable that a yearbook entry from a friend called her the woman’s “companion.”
“The nun brainwashed me into thinking we were head over heels in love,” she said. “God’s love, that’s why no one else could know about it — it was so special.”

Now I’d like to tell you that the perpetrators have all been punished and that the victims were financially compensated. Well, I’d like to, but I can’t. I’m sure by now you’re familiar with how this kind of thing goes. The statues of limitation had all experienced, thanks to the tireless work of religious organizations that pushed for these laws in the first place.

The only good news in all of this is that the public has begun to recognize female perpetrators of sexual abuse, and given enough time, enough awareness could be raised that it won’t only be priests that have a sullied name. Let’s just take the time to acknowledge that regardless of gender, when anyone works for a religious organization, leaving your kids with them is like asking Hannibal Lecter to babysit your kids.

These kinds of headlines have long ago lost their shock value, haven’t they? Of course we know that Catholic organizations have been openly impeding investigations into child abuse. We’re so numb to the fact that one of the richest organizations in the world is routinely aiding and abetting known rapists that when someone calls them out for it, it no longer phases us. We must not forget that each victim deserves the same attention, and that we must not allow ourselves to become complacent.

In Chicago, a Catholic order known as the Order of Friar Servants of Mary, or “Servites” as they often call themselves, operate under a powerful cloak of secrecy. They own and operated several educational institutions, one of which is the center of a lawsuit. One of their employees, Rev. Kevin Fitzpatrick, has been accused by 9 people of molestation, and they are suing the order for failing to report him to the police. Fitzpatrick was allowed to operate for over a decade, and so it’s not difficult to imagine that this group is only a small sample of the harm him, and others in his organization have caused. Here’s what part of the lawsuit states:

“Defendants knew or had reason to know, or were otherwise on notice, that perpetrator had engaged in unlawful sexual-related conduct with minors in the past, and/or was continuing to engage in such conduct with plaintiff and failed to take reasonable steps and to implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of unlawful sexual conduct in the future by perpetrator.”

The Servite order is ancient; it traces its roots back to the 13th century, and like all sinister and secretive cults, it isn’t in the habits of divulging anything to the outside world. Their edicts are the familiar repressive themes that seem to create, or perhaps attract, perverse humans who like to prey on the innocent: chastity, obedience, and poverty. The only one this order seems to value is obedience. As the pressure of the lawsuit mounts, the order is considering bankruptcy protection. If they do, it would echo the same responses from churches all over the US who have used bankruptcy laws intended for corporations to great benefit. It allows them to avoid any form of legal discovery, and forces victims to settle for a pittance of what they wanted.

Is it too much to expect some form of retribution? Why should any organization be allowed to exist when it knowingly shielded child abusers from the law? Would any non-religious order be allowed to operate if they had records of abuse but had failed to share them? These people should all be in jail, their organization dissolved, and the money distributed to the victims. It’s that easy.

Do you have a dark and insatiable desire to abuse innocent young children, but fear the possibility of retribution? Have you considered the Catholic Church? The Vatican is running out of members, which means that when one of them is credibly accused of rape, they will benefit from the protection of a trillion dollar organization run by weird and sinister men.

When the Catholic Church isn’t too busy making sure that people are not wearing protection in countries ravaged by the AIDS virus, they are busy refusing to punish their monsters that have hidden in their evil lair to avoid prosecution. Look no further than the case of Rev. Johannes Rivoire for proof. He’s been charged with sexual crimes in Canada, but because he’s living in France, the quest for justice is essentially stalled. This seems to suit the Catholic Church just fine, and they’ve decided that the best way to proceed is to ensure the guy is still on the payroll.

A French clergyman dubbed the “devil priest” who stands accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Canada’s north will not be dismissed from his congregation after senior church officials in Rome declined to act, citing the nonagenarian’s declining health.

Any excuse to avoid the embarrassment of having one of your own exposed as a pedophile is a good one, it seems. The reason this individual is called “The Devil Priest” is because he operated unfettered for over 30 years with the most vulnerable members of society. The police had evidence for years, but even when people approached them with credible evidence, they did nothing, allowing Rivoire to move back to his home country to avoid prosecution. He’s a part of Canada’s shameful past, where Inuit children were forced to attend “residential schools”, which were more like gulags than schools. Unfortunately, thanks to the Church and the government of France, this monster will be allowed to get away with his disgusting crime.

Will the day come when the institutions who protect these people will be held to account? For all our sakes, I hope so.

When atheists say that the Catholic Church attracts pedophiles, we aren’t just making a crass joke. The way the Church has shielded it’s members from prosecution, the effort its put into lobbying governments to lower the statues of limitation on sexual crime, and the amount of money they have given away to keep mouths shut sends a clear message that if you are attracted to innocent children, you should join their ranks.

It seems as though Broderick Witt got the message. He was studying to become a priest, until he was eventually arrested after the police were tipped off that he possessed a bunch of really disturbing child pornography, including images with victims as young as 6 years old.

The Archdioses of Cincinnati released this rather amusing statement:

“The seminary and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati have strict policies against, and take significant precautions to prevent, anyone from possessing or accessing material of this type, regardless of whether they are a student, faculty, or staff. Discovery of such material will result in immediate termination or dismissal and notification of law enforcement,” Rev. Anthony R. Brausch, Rector said in a letter to the seminary community.

They’re finally notifying law enforcement now? That’s a pretty big departure from their regular mode of operation. You may recall that former Pope Benedict XVI had issued a memo during his tenure as the head of the Inquisition (renamed “Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith” as it seems the centuries of bloodshed had somewhat tainted the name). It specified that Church leaders were to keep any information of abuse secret, and authorities were not to be contacted without approval from the higher ups (which they never would). I guess when you haven’t yet joined the club, they take a bit of a different approach to dealing with child predators. That means we just have to catch them before they can benefit from the protection of a trillion dollar organization. Good to know.