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	Abusive Priests Linked to Choir of Pope's Brother By Christopher Lawton Calgary Herald March 6, 2010 http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Abusive+priests+linked+choir+Pope+brother/2647801/story.html GERMANY -- G ermany's Roman Catholic Church revealed charges of priests beating and sexually abusing boys in at least three schools in Pope Benedict's native Bavaria on Friday, one linked to a renowned choir once led by his brother. The charges at the cathedral choir in Regensburg, the Benedictine monastery school at Ettal and a Capucian school in Burghausen came to light after abuse cases revealed at Jesuit schools across Germany shocked the country last month. Rev. Georg Ratzinger, 86, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994, told Bavarian Radio he knew nothing of any abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen choir, which regularly perform s on tours in Germany and abroad. The diocese of Regensburg, where the Pope taught theology at the university from 1969 to 1977, said there were no current abuse cases and it would investigate all charges from the past. "We want to fully answer the question about which abuse cases happened in Regensburg diocese, who were the perpetrators and who were the victims?" said diocesan spokesman Clemens Neck at a news conference in the northern Bavarian city. The diocese said that one priest had abused two boys sexually in 1958 and was sentenced to two years in jail. Another clergyman served 11 months in jail in 1971 for abuse. Both men have since died. It said three men claimed to have suffered sexual abuse as well as beatings and humiliation in the early 1960s while at boarding schools connected to the choir. The diocese was investigating these cases and more could be revealed. Sexual abuse scandals, which haunted the church in the U.S. over the last decade, have rocked Ireland after two blunt government reports in recent months and come to light in the Netherlands this week.
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