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	Vatican Warns against Dragging Pope into German Sex Abuse Scandal Earth Times March 13, 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313903,vatican-warns-against-dragging-pope-into-german-sex-abuse-scandal.html VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican warned Saturday against attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into a widening sexual abuse scandal involving priests in the pontiff's native Germany. A Vatican spokesman made the comment after revelations of sexual abuse in a choir directed by the pope's brother in Regensburg and the activities of a paedophile priest in the Munich diocese where the pope once served as archbishop. "In recent days, persons have been doggedly searching in Regensburg and Munich for elements to implicate the Holy Father personally in the cases of abuse," Father Federico Lombardi said. For every neutral observer it was clear "that these efforts have failed," the papal spokesman said. Around 150 cases of sexual abuse have been reported at more than 20 German Catholic schools, some dating back to the 1950s. Of those, around 100 victims are from one school, in the southern German town of Ettal. On Saturday, the scandal moved closer to the pope himself when the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung linked the pope to a paedophile priest when the pontiff was archbishop of Munich in 1980. The report said the pope, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, had permitted the priest to move to Munich from another diocese where he had been accused of sexually abusing children. The priest was allowed to continue working with young people, and was later charged with sex offences and convicted, the report said. But there was no evidence the archbishop was involved in the decision to let the cleric continue doing youth work, it added. Earlier this week, 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. 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. The papal spokesman said the cases of abuse in Regensburg happened in the late 1950s, before Ratzinger's tenure. In the case of Munich, it was was clear that Archbishop Ratzinger had nothing to do with decisions "that led to the later incidents of sexual abuse," Father Lombardi said. The pontiff met Friday with Germany's top cleric, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, to discuss the abuse scandal. "We want to shed light on the truth ... even if many of the facts happened decades ago, the victims have a right to this," Zollitsch said after the 45-minute audience at the Vatican. The Catholic Church had earlier come under fire from German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who asserted that a Vatican "wall of silence" has been hampering investigations of the abuse cases.
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