Pope Benedict’s brother accused over abuse culture at German school

By David Charter
Times (UK)
July 19, 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pope-benedict-s-brother-blamed-for-culture-of-abuse-at-german-catholic-school-jhntbmlfm

For 30 years Georg Ratzinger ran a choir in Germany where boys were physically and sexually abused

The brother of Benedict XVI, the former pope, was today named partly responsible for a culture of abuse at a Catholic choir school in Germany where at least 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual assault.

Georg Ratzinger ran the prestigious Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994 and admitted slapping boys, which he said was common practice at the time, but denied knowledge of sexual abuse.

A lawyer brought in to investigate the allegations, some going back to 1945, said in his final report that Mr Ratzinger, 93, could be blamed “for looking away or for failing to intervene”.

The report on the 1,000-year-old school counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by a total of 49 perpetrators. Some boys were victims of both sexual and violent attacks and nine unnamed men were said to have carried out the sexual assaults.

Allegations about the historical mistreatment of young boys at the school emerged in 2010 during a series of revelations of abuse by Catholic clergymen and led to the inquiry.

Ulrich Weber, the lawyer, identified the choir’s pre-school as the place of the worst abuse because beatings were commonplace as part of a programme to instill discipline in the young choristers.

Mr Weber said there could be as many as 700 victims in all in the period examined up to 1992 and many remembered the school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness”. Some called it a jail while others referred to it as a concentration camp.

Mr Weber said there was no evidence that Mr Ratzinger knew of the sexual violence. No legal action against individuals are expected to arise from his report because the abuse took place more than 25 years ago, beyond the limit for charges.

Mr Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” while he ran the choir.

Some of the abuse was said to have been carried out by Johann Meier, a teacher until 1992, who has since died. Mr Ratzinger was meant to oversee Meier’s work.

The report listed criticism by victims of the Regensburg diocese for failing to investigate complaints about past abuse. It said that the bishop at the time the allegations surfaced, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, bore “clear responsibility for the strategic, organisational and communicative weaknesses”.

Cardinal Müller became the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office in 2012. Pope Francis recently removed him from that position.