231 CHILDREN PARTICIPATING IN A CHOIR RUN BY POPE BENEDICT'S BROTHER, GEORGE RATZINGER, WERE SEXUALLT AND PHYSICALLY ABUSED BY PRIESTS

Published 09:39 January 12, 2016

Updated 09:39 January 12, 2016

231 children participating in a choir run by Pope Benedict’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, were sexually and physically abused by priests.

By NEOnline/GK
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231 children, who participated in a choir led by Pope Benedict’s brother, were sexually and physically abused by priests.

The first allegations for the sexual and physical abuse of children in Domspatzen – which is the official choir for St. Peter’s Cathedral in Bavaria, Germany – made public in 2010 when well-known German composer, Franz Wittenbrink, told the German magazine Spiegel he had been abused while enrolled in the choir.

On Friday, a lawyer who is hired for investigating the case, announced that 231 children in the choir were abused physically and sexually between 1953 and 1992, many by the director of the affiliated Roman Catholic school in Regensburg. According to AFP news agency, the number of the victims is now three times more, compared with a previous church report.

The Domspatzen choir was led between 1964 and 1994 by Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI and lawyer-investigator Ulrich Weber, said that he “must assume” that Georg Ratzinger had at least some knowledge of the children’s abuse. However, Ratzinger is not accused of committing any of the alleged crimes.

According to Slate.com, Ratzinger now lives in retirement at the Vatican and his brother Pope Benedict was accused before and during his tenure as pope, of playing a key role in covering up the sexual abuse cases which hit the Vatican church.

According to AFP, Weber said the reported instances of sexual abuse included offenses such as fondling and rape while physical abuses such as withholding food and beatings also occurred. Wittenbrink, also told Spiegel in 2010, that there was a “system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure,” in the “religious” school.