After three damning reports detailing horrific sexual abuse of children in Ireland and systemic cover-up of these crimes by the Catholic Church, new scandals have surfaced in the Netherlands and Germany.
Following disclosures by three people who went public with claims of abuse at a boarding school in the Netherlands, hundreds of other people have come forward claiming they were also abused by priests and nuns. In Germany investigations into Jesuit-run schools prompted allegations involving the Regensburg diocese in Bavaria.
The Regensburg allegations have drawn particular attention because both Pope Benedict and his brother Georg spent a large part of their careers in senior positions there. Joseph Ratzinger taught theology at the University of Regensburg in the 1970's. His brother Georg ran the prestigious Regensburger Domspatzen choir for some 30 years.
Georg Ratzinger
There are reports of systematic abuse by clergy at a number of schools in the Regensburg diocese, including a boarding school associated with the Domspatzen choir. Georg Ratzinger has said he would be willing to testify in the sex scandal but has made a point of saying that he knows nothing about sexual abuse of boys.
In an interview with La Repubblica, he said that there was "discipline and rigour", whatever that means... but no "terror". Perhaps the "discipline and rigour" included slapping students in the face - something Ratzinger has admitted to doing. His denial of any knowledge of sexual abuse included the comment that in his view, the accusations reflect "a certain animosity toward the church".
The German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Scharrenberger has made a number of hard hitting, and in my opinion entirely justified remarks, with respect to the cover-up by the church.
The Independent:
"...the German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, joined a growing chorus of politicians in Berlin to criticise the church over its attitude to the investigation, accusing Catholic institutions of a policy of secrecy.
"In many schools there was a wall of silence allowing for abuse and violence," said Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a prominent critic of the church. She pointed to a Vatican directive from 2001 which required that even the most damaging allegations should be first investigated internally and then reported to the authorities."
Given Georg Ratzinger's thirty year tenure at the school, his point blank denial of any knowledge of sexual abuse is frankly difficult to believe. Director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, a former student at the Regensburg school, is also puzzled by Ratzinger's lack of recall. Wittenbrink has gone on record saying that the school had "a sophisticated system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust".
Der Spiegel goes into more detail:
"He [Wittenbrink] said the headmaster at the time "would choose two or three of us boys in the dormitories in the evenings and take them to his flat." He said there had been red wine, and that the priest had masturbated with the pupils. "Everyone knew about it," said Wittenbrink. "I find it inexplicable that the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it."
Franz Wittenbrink
Another former pupil who attended the Etterhausen boarding school, a preparatory school for younger students from which the choir draws its recruits, has also made detailed claims of abuse.
Spiegel:
"He said that at the end of the 1950s the headmaster of the school, a Catholic priest, had dealt out hard physical punishments. He had often practiced what was called "naked beatings" in his private rooms, where boys aged eight or nine had to undress and were beaten by hand. In some cases, the victim said, penetration took place."
In interviews with Der Spiegel former choirboys at the Regensburger Domspatzen have alleged sexual and physical abuse at the choir's boarding schools. Therapists in the Munich area are known to have treated several choirboys who were traumatized by sexual and other physical abuse.
Ratzinger was interviewed in his Regensburg home by the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Serra. The interviewer asked him if he had spoken to his brother about the abuse allegations.
His response: "Not about this. It's the press that wants to know about these things."
"These things"... he makes it sound like an inconvenient and rather annoying line of inquiry. These would be the same "things" that Benedict described as "heinous crimes" when addressing Ireland's bishops.
Link to reports on the scandal from the UK Independent and Der Spiegel (english edition).
Link also to an article by Colm O'Gorman titled "The Vatican values its position more than children's safety" - here.
