Special Broadcasting Service
March 11, 2010
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1212012/Pope%27s-brother-linked-to-sex-abuse
GERMANY -- Over two thirds of Germany's catholic dioceses have become embroiled in child abuse scandal after increasing evidence emerged of abuses at a home in the 1970s.
Even the pope's brother has asked for forgiveness after being linked to scandal at one home - although he denies any knowledge of abuses.
The diocese of Mainz near Frankfurt said it had preliminary indications that two people abused pupils boarding at Bensheim in the 1970s. State prosecutors have been informed, a statement said.
The director of the convent, where children attending a nearby secondary school boarded, was also implicated in sexual abuse allegations, it said.
He "left the service of the diocese" in 1979 before the convent closed for "economic and educational" reasons.
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| Georg Ratzinger with his brother, Pope Benedict. |
The scandal erupted in January when an elite Jesuit school in Berlin admitted systematic sexual abuse of pupils by two priests in the 1970s and 1980s, and has now engulfed 19 of Germany's 27 dioceses.
Also implicated is a boarding school attached to the Domspatzen ("Cathedral Sparrows"), Regensburg cathedral's 1,000-year-old choir. The choir was run for 29 years by Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI.
The brother of the Pope gave an interview to German media in which he claimed he did not know of the goings-on at the time, 'but at the same time I ask for victims for forgiveness', he said.
Accusations grow
In light of the publicity that the accusations are receiving, more and more cases are coming out of the woodwork. Germany's leading tabloid newspaper Bild published a number of accusations which also implicated homes in the former GDR, or East Germany.
The paper also reported that the head of the German Bishop's Conference will meet with the Pope in Rome on Friday where he will discuss the 'current situation in Germany.'
No charges expected
Most of the priests concerned are not expected to face criminal charges because the alleged crimes took place too long ago, but there have been growing calls for a change in the law and for the Church to pay compensation.
The German scandal is one of several to have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years, notably in Ireland where one priest admitted sexually abusing more than 100 children, and this week in Austria and the Netherlands.
Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Vatican, said Tuesday that German, Austrian and Dutch Church leaders had acted "rapidly and decisively", stressing that sexual abuse went far beyond church walls.
The chairman of the German Bishops Conference, Robert Zollitsch, was to meet the pope on Friday at the Vatican to discuss the cases.
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