Catholic Scandal Spreads 

Former Regensburg Choirboys Talk of 'Naked Beatings'

Der Spiegel

08 March 2010

Former choirboys of the Regensburger Domspatzen have told SPIEGEL about sexual and physical abuse at two boarding schools attached to the famous Catholic choir. One former choirboy says it's "inexplicable" that the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, a former head of the choir, didn't know about it.

The abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen choir is bigger than had been thought so far. Therapists in and around Munich treated several former choirboys who were traumatized by sexual and other physical abuse.

One man affected told SPIEGEL about cruel rituals in the Etterzhausen boarding school, a preparatory school for younger pupils from which the choir draws its recruits.

He said that at the end of the 1950s the headmaster of the school, a Catholic priest, had dealt out hard physical punishments. He had often practiced what was called "naked beatings" in his private rooms, where boys aged eight or nine had to undress and were beaten by hand. In some cases, the victim said, penetration took place.

'Sexual Lust'

The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who lived in the Regensburg boarding school of the choir until 1967, said the school had an "elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust."

He said the headmaster at the time "would choose two or three of us boys in the dormitories in the evenings and take them to his flat." He said there had been red wine, and that the priest had masturbated with the pupils. "Everyone knew about it," said Wittenbrink. "I find it inexplicable that the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it."

One fellow pupil had committed suicide shortly before taking his high-school exams, Wittenbrink said. Despite many indications, the Regensburg Diocese did not make abuse cases public until contacted by SPIEGEL last Thursday. Now the chair has pledged to investigate everything rigorously and to present an interim report at the end of March.

The allegations against former teachers are the latest to come to light in a scandal over sexual abuse at Catholic schools in Germany.

Pope's Brother Says Knew Nothing

Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, told an Italian newspaper he was willing to testify in the sex scandal but knows nothing about the alleged abuse of boys in the Regensburg choir.

In an interview published Sunday, Ratzinger was quoted as saying by the Rome daily La Repubblica that there was "discipline and rigor" but no terror during his 30 years as head of the Regensburg choir from 1964 until 1994.

The pope's brother also said the abuse accusations also reflected "a certain animosity toward the church."

The Vatican had said on Saturday that two cases of sexual abuse linked to the Regensburg choir did not coincide with the 30-year period it was led by Georg Ratzinger.

'Great Deal of Anger'

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano printed a statement on Saturday by the Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, saying that one case of abuse by the deputy director of a primary school linked to the choir was detected in 1958.

In addition, the paper called for action to be taken against those responsible. Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the paper that perpetrators need to be brought to court and victims compensated for their suffering.

He said he has followed the ever growing scandal in Germany with "deep disappointment, pain and a great deal of anger." There is "no justification, no tolerance," he continued. At issue is a "despicable crime that must be pursued with absolute resolve."

Bigpondnews.com

Sunday, March 07, 2010 » 08:21pm

A German bishop has given details of a sex-abuse scandal at a famous boys' choir in southern Germany.

A German bishop has given new details of a sex-abuse scandal at a famous boys' choir in southern Germany once headed by Pope Benedict XVI's brother.

Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, bishop of Regensburg, where the Domspatzen (Cathedral Sparrows) choir is based, also confirmed previous reports that Benedict's 86-year-old brother did not head the choir at the time.

The two 'remembered' cases of sex abuse at Domspatzen dated back to 1958 and therefore 'did not coincide with the period where professor Georg Ratzinger was in charge', Mueller said in a statement published in the Vatican's official Osservatore Romano newspaper.

Ratzinger headed the choir between 1964 and 1994, he said.

The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, a former pupil of the boarding school attached to Domspatzen, spoke of an 'ingenious system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure' at the school.

In comments to be published in Monday's edition of Der Spiegel news weekly, he accused a former head of the school of 'taking two or three boys into his room in the evenings', giving them wine and masturbating with them.

Wittenbrink told the magazine it was well known what went on at the school, and he 'could not understand how the pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, who was master of the chapel from 1964, could not have been aware'.

The Domspatzen allegations are part of a widening sex scandal rocking Germany's Roman Catholic Church, which includes allegations of abuse at a number of institutions, including a monastic school in the southern town of Ettal.

According to Mueller, the first sex abuse case involving Domspatzen was committed by the vice principal of a primary school that collaborated regularly with the choir.

The man was fired and convicted in the courts, he said.

The second case involved 'a person who worked for Domspatzen for seven months' and who was sentenced for sexual abuse 12 years later, Mueller said.

In a letter to parents published on its website, the choir acknowledged a child had been abused in the 1950s and a former chorister in the early 1960s had recently told a newspaper he had

been sexually molested.

The choir said the principal of the boarding school tied to the choir was convicted in relation to the 1950s events and had since died.

But a spokesman for the Regensburg bishopric told AFP on Friday that it had further 'information about alleged abuse between 1958 and 1973', and said it planned to investigate the allegations.

The sex abuse allegations in Germany are the latest in a series of scandals to hit the Roman Catholic Church in several countries.

A Vatican statement on Saturday said it wanted to shed 'complete light' on all sex abuse cases.

'The Church's main objective is to render justice to the victims,' added the statement which was also published in Osservatore Romano.

In separate remarks published on Saturday, top papal adviser Cardinal Walter Kasper said the Church needed to be 'seriously' cleaned up.

The Irish Times

06 March 2010

POPE BENEDICT’S brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, has denied knowing about abuse cases during his time as leader of Germany’s most famous boys’ choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen or “cathedral sparrows”.

The latest revelations in Germany’s widening clerical abuse scandal came to light after former choirboys came forward to say they had been abused during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mgr Ratzinger led the choir from 1964 to 1994. Founded in 975, it is the oldest boys’ choir in the world and is based in a Regensburg boarding school with an emphasis on musical education.

It is here that the abuse took place, according to a statement by the diocese of Regensburg yesterday.

One man, a religion teacher and deputy principal, was removed in 1958 and charged; a second teacher was charged in 1971. The men have since died but a diocese spokesman yesterday said they could not rule out that other abuse cases would come to light.

“We ask all who have learned of sexual abuse of minors in our institution by clerics or other church staff, or those who are victims themselves, to report this to a member of the board,” the spokesman said. “We want to investigate this with complete transparency.”

Mgr Ratzinger told Bavarian public television yesterday that he had no knowledge of abuse in the choir, which performed last year in the Vatican for Mgr Ratzinger’s 85th birthday in the presence of Pope Benedict.

Meanwhile further damaging details have emerged about decades of abuse at the Bavarian Benedictine monastery and elite boarding school Kloster Ettal.

After the resignation of the principal last week, the school was raided by German investigators on Monday.

Yesterday an investigator called in by the school management presented a preliminary report detailing “decades of massive abuse: sexual, physical and psychological” at the school.

Mr Thomas Pfister, a Munich lawyer, said over 100 former students had contacted him “day and night” to tell of a “regime of terror” from the 1960s to the 1990s, involving around 10 different priests.

Pupils said they were sexually abused, forced to hit each other while priests looked on, or were locked in the cellar at night.

Mr Pfister said the faculty was not made up exclusively of “abusing criminals”, but that serious mistakes were allowed to persist because of an “institutional culture of silence, of looking the other way” and a “false sense of solidarity” among management.

One of the monks at Kloster Ettal has admitted downloading child pornography on to a school computer and uploading images of pupils to the internet. The pictures, showing pupils stripped to the waist, were taken during a hiking holiday a decade ago, and found by a former pupil on a gay website.

The abuse cases in Kloster Ettal are likely to have fallen beyond Germany’s statute of limitations, in such cases usually 10 years after the victim turns 18.

The Local Germany's News in English

Published: 5 Mar 10 12:24 CET

Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100305-25687.html

The child sexual abuse scandal in Germany’s Catholic Church continued to spread on Friday as a spokesperson confirmed abuse at Regensburg’s cathedral school for their famous boys' choir, the Domspatzen.

Victims of have come forward to report abuse at the institution, and the two men, who both died in 1984, will still be charged with their crimes, the diocese spokesperson said.

One suspect, who was a religion teacher and the institution’s assistant leader, was removed from service in 1958. The other man was reportedly censured in 1971.

“We want to investigate with transparency,” the spokesperson said.

The diocese said it planned to create a commission to study the school’s old files and archives between 1958 and 1973, when the abuse is thought to have occurred.

On Thursday Bavarian police also raided the Ettal monastery, which runs a Catholic boarding school, on suspicion of child pornography. According to daily Münchner Merkur, a monk there has admitted to uploading such material to the internet. The monastery also admitted to at least two cases of sexual abuse.

The scandal was revealed in late January when Berlin’s prestigious Canisius school announced that around 50 former students had claimed they were sexually abused by priests. Since then lawyers for victims have said more than 120 people across the country have come forward with allegations of abuse by up to 12 different priests and teachers at other Catholic institutions. So far 18 of 27 dioceses have been affected.

The country’s top Catholic bishop Robert Zollitsch, who issued a public apology in late February, is schedules to meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in one week to discuss the scandal.

DPA/The Local (news@thelocal.de)