By Nicholas Kulish
New York Times
March 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/world/europe/23germany.html
GERMANY, MUNICH — The investigation into sexual abuse by clergy members in Germany expanded Monday to take in four more priests and two nuns in the Regensburg Diocese in Bavaria after new victims came forward there, the diocese said Monday.
The widening scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the pope's native Germany has cast a shadow on the Vatican, with allegations touching his former archdiocese. Hundreds of victims have come forward in Germany since reports of abuse at a Catholic school in Berlin became public in January, with others reported in Austria and the Netherlands.
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| Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, brother of the pope, once led a choir in the Regensburg Diocese. Photo by Peter Kneffel |
The claims of sexual abuse in Regensburg have attracted particular attention because the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, directed a choir there from 1964 to 1994, raising questions about whether he would have known about sexual abuse at a school linked to the choir. Monsignor Ratzinger has said that he knew nothing about the sexual abuse, and he apologized for slapping students during his tenure.
The pope himself has come under fire because a priest accused of molesting boys was allowed to transfer to an archdiocese overseen by Benedict, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, in the 1980s. The priest was allowed to return to pastoral work, including work with children, and was later convicted of further incidents of sexual abuse.
On Saturday, Benedict issued a strong apology to victims and their families in Ireland, expressing "shame and remorse" for what he called "sinful and criminal" acts committed by members of the clergy there, but he did not directly address the situation in his native Germany.
According to a statement on the Regensburg Diocese Web site, church officials are searching through records and reaching out to former students in an attempt to uncover past cases of sexual abuse. Of the new accusations, five date from before the mid-1970s and one from 1984.
The statute of limitations for molestation in Germany is 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday, but a diocese spokesman said the church was looking into all cases, no matter how old.
"Concrete evidence of possible criminal offenses is turned over to the prosecutor's office, regardless of the statute of limitations," said the diocese spokesman, Clemens Neck, according to the statement.
In addition to the new cases against the four priests and two nuns, Mr. Neck said other victims in Regensburg came forward with accusations against people who had since died, as well as two new cases of abuse against men who had been previously convicted. In a sign of the age of the cases, Mr. Neck said that both of the nuns accused of sexual abuse have dementia.
"We most deeply regret what members of the clergy and church employees did to these children and youths, and we ask for forgiveness on their behalf," he said.
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