Brother of pope disclaims knowledge of child abuse

Amsterdam News.Net
Monday 8th March, 2010

The brother of Pope Benedict XVI has said he never had knowledge of child sexual abuse in a famous southern German boys choir.

Georg Ratzinger, who headed the choir for over twenty years, said he had never heard of any illegal activity perpetrated by men attached to the choir.

The incidents, which go back nearly 60 years, allegedly occurred when a former head of the school was said to have engaged in drinking and masturbation sessions with some of the boys.

A former pupil at the boarding school has told the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, an "ingenious system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure" occurred at the school, and he was unable to see how the Pope's brother, who was master of the chapel from 1964, could not have been aware.

The allegations are now part of a widening sex scandal rocking Germany's Roman Catholic Church, which includes allegations of abuse at a number of school institutions.

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