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	Pope's Talks with German Bishop to Focus on Sexual Abuse Scandal Monsters and Critics March 12, 2010 http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1540473.php/Pope-s-talks-with-German-bishop-to-focus-on-sexual-abuse-scandal Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting with Germany's top cleric on Friday, in which a wide-ranging sexual abuse scandal involving priests in the pontiff's home country was expected to be the main point of discussion. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, who heads the German Episcopal Conference, was scheduled to hold a news conference after his audience with the pope. Earlier this week, papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi rebutted criticism levelled against the Vatican, insisting that a 'prompt and decisive' response had been made after revelations of sexual abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Germany, as well as in the Netherlands and Austria. Lombardi's remarks appeared partly to have been made in response to German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger's assertion on Monday that a Vatican 'wall of silence' has been hampering investigations of the cases. Around 150 cases of sexual abuse have so far been reported by former German Catholic school pupils, dating back to the 1950s. Of those, around 100 victims are from one school, in the southern German town of Ettal.Last week the scandal moved much closer to the pope himself, when the diocese of Regensburg reported that there had been cases of sexual abuse in the Regensburger Domspatzen choir which, from 1964 to 1994, was directed by Benedict's brother, 86-year-old Monsignor Georg Ratzinger. The cases of abuse are believed to have happened in the late 1950s, before Ratzinger's tenure. Ratzinger told Bavarian television he had no knowledge of the abuse. However, he admitted in a subsequent interview that as choirmaster he slapped pupils as punishment. Friday's audience with Zollitsch comes as Benedict is working on a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics in Ireland, where a government report detailed decades of physical and sexual abuse in church-run schools. The letter is expected to be released sometime this month.
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