ROME — The longest-serving bishop in Belgium resigned Friday after admitting to sexually abusing “a boy in my close entourage” many years ago, becoming the latest cleric to quit in a spreading abuse scandal.

WHAT!?!?!??!?

How the fuck does this guilty self-incriminated rapist get to declare his own punishment?

What would you say if Adolf Hitler admitted to his crimes, but then proceeded to suggest that his ‘resignation’ would be adequate compensation for the folk that he killed, and the Jews that he had murdered?

I suspect that you might advise him to seek the mercy of the relevant civil authorities, not pronounce by fiat his own limp sentence!

The development added to a corrosive catalog of disclosures that has damaged the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church and shaken the trust of many believers in their spiritual leaders.

In a statement issued by the Vatican on Friday, Roger Vangheluwe, 73, the bishop of Bruges since 1985, said that the abuse had occurred “when I was still a simple priest and for a while when I began as a bishop.”

“This has marked the victim forever,” he said.

The bishop said that he had asked the victim and his family several times to forgive him, but that the wound had not healed, “neither in me nor the victim.” A recent media storm merely deepened the trauma, he said. “I am profoundly sorry,” he said.

Well, that excuses his foul crime, eh?

No way, José…

This week, in a rare public comment directly addressing the issue of abuse,Pope Benedict XVI promised that the church would take action to deal with the crisis.

Yeah, and Ronald Reagan was a great President, and Santa is real, and used-car salesmen are the most honest folks on the planet.

Like hell he will. He might take action to limit damage to his empire, but nothing more, the genocidal bastard.