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.

Looks like some priests aren’t content to just blame homosexuality for the rampant abuse of children; Bernardo Álvarez, the Bishop of Tenerife in Spain, had this to say about the recent scandals:

There are 13 year old adolescents who are under age and who are perfectly in agreement with, and what’s more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you

I think this is called the “Lolita” defense, and it sounds about as convincing as you might imagine. All those kids who were sodomized against their will were really just asking for it, shaking their prepubescent little booties around, wearing tight t-shirts with the Transformer logo, and smelling of bubble gum and candy. The whores! How dare they tempt these poor Holy men of the cloth with their sexy, completely underdeveloped bodies?

So to recap, the people to blame are homosexuals (for spreading their sin around town) and overly sexed kids, who continually tempt priests with their erotic use of the word “dude”. You wouldn’t want to place the blame on pederast pieces of shit who have ruined the lives of thousands of innocent children; why, that would just be wrong and an insult to the memory those poor, downtrodden priests who did nothing more than “give” those horny kids what they were begging for!

I dream of the day when I no longer have to say the name Bill Donohue, for every time I do, a little bit of sick makes its way into my mouth. The fact that mainstream media continues to give him a platform to speak proves how shallow and uneducated they are. The latest words out of his poisonous mouth regarding the allegations of priestly sexual abuse (the subsequent attempt to conceal these activities) goes something like this: It wasn’t child rape because the kids were post-pubescent at the time (and were therefore just “sexy” teenagers).

Maybe Bill is a little confused as to the relative age of consent. According to him, if you’re above 12 years of age and a clergyman forcefully shoves his dick in your mouth, it’s in actually consensual gay sex (and silly you for thinking otherwise!). So in Bill’s view, the controversy surrounding the Vatican isn’t about child rape, but homosexuality.

Surely there are Catholics out there who are genuinely disgusted and outraged Bill could say such a thing while representing the interest of their institution. Unfortunately for them, the ones in power have no real interest in seeking justice for the victims; they simply want to avoid having to admit their culpability and end up paying billions of dollars in compensation. They would rather blame everything on gays and atheists rather than take a long hard look at the corruption and rot present in their own church.

Keep being the same old you, Bill. You do more to help atheism than you can possibly imagine.