By Rachael Brown
ABC News
March 8, 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/09/2840282.htm?section=world
[with audio]
 |
| Bishop Ratzinger says he knows nothing about the alleged abuse Photo by Martin Bernetti |
The brother of Pope Benedict XVI has agreed to testify in the sex scandal rocking Germany's Catholic Church.
Former members of the Regensburger Cathedral Choir allege they were sexually and physically abused at two boarding schools attached to the choir.
The pope's brother, Georg Ratzinger, who led the choir for 30 years, says he knows nothing about the alleged abuse cases.
A German newspaper has heard allegations of cruel rituals from former choir boys who say a priest at their boarding school dealt out beatings and engaged in a range of sexual activities.
Ex-students said the school had an elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust.
It is the latest in a string of allegations levelled at German Catholic schools.
Bishop Ratzinger took over the choir after the era of alleged assaults. He told an Italian newspaper he would testify in regards to the wider Church sex scandal, but that he knows nothing of the alleged choir assaults.
"Obviously I'd be very ready to do so, but I'm not able to provide any information on any deed that could be punished, because I don't have any," Mr Ratzinger said.
"I never knew anything about it. I insist, I wasn't around then, I wasn't working with the choir when the cases they're talking about happened."
The cries of ignorance have angered Franz Wittenbrink, a former student of one of the boarding schools. He says the choir boys had much respect for Bishop Ratzinger when he took over the choir in 1964.
But Mr Wittenbrink says just because Bishop Ratzinger had no part in the scandal does not mean he was unaware of it.
"I'm really sure, I can't believe that he didn't know it, because it was a big scandal," Mr Wittenbrink said.
"There was a change in directors. There were boys thrown out of the school. I think he should really know it and so I really can't understand that he says he doesn't know anything."
Mr Wittenbrink says he wants the diocese to be honest about its past.
"The priest and the church [should] apologise to all the victims because they are damaged for [their] whole life. I know many of my friends, they were broken in this boarding school," he said.
Mr Wittenbrink said the assaults drove one fellow pupil to suicide just before his high school exams.
Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has criticised the Vatican, saying the recent abuse allegations have met a "wall of silence", referring to a rule that requires abuse cases be investigated internally.
She said prosecutors should have been called in as soon as possible.
Her comments come the same day as the Pope is expected to issue a pastoral letter about abuse in the Irish clergy.
He promised the letter at a summit of Irish bishops at the Vatican, convened to address the sex scandals covered up for decades in the Irish Catholic Church.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.