Pope's brother: I ignored physical abuse reports

[defendandprotect]

Pope's brother: I ignored physical abuse reports


By MELISSA EDDY and ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writers Melissa Eddy And Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press Writers – 45 mins ago

BERLIN – The pope's brother said in a newspaper interview published Tuesday that he slapped pupils as punishment after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s. He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at an elementary school linked to the choir but did nothing about it.

The Rev. Georg Ratzinger, 86, said he was completely unaware of allegations of sexual abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, part of a string of charges of sex abuse by church employees across Europe in recent days.

Responding to accusations that its policies encouraged silence about the problem, the Vatican said that the sexual abuse scandals in Germany and other countries were cause for anguish but its response has been prompt and transparent.

The scandal sweeping church institutions in many European countries kept widening Tuesday.







In Austria, the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg admitted to sexually abusing a child decades ago and resigned. Dutch Catholic bishops announced an independent inquiry into more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests at church schools and apologized to victims.

The German abuse allegations are particularly sensitive because Germany is the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI and because the scandals involve the prestigious choir that was led by Georg Ratzinger from 1964 till 1994.

Last week, the Regensburg Diocese said a former singer at the choir had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse in the early 1960s. And across Germany, more than 170 students have claimed they were sexually abused at several Catholic high schools.

Ratzinger has repeatedly said the sexual abuse allegations date from before his tenure as choir director. Asked in the interview Tuesday whether he knew of them, Ratzinger insisted he was not aware of the problem.

"These things were never discussed," Ratzinger told Tuesday's Passauer Neue Presse German daily. "The problem of sexual abuse that has now come to light was never spoken of."

Jakob Schoetz, a spokesman for the Regensburg diocese, told The Associated Press that Ratzinger would not comment further on the issue.

There have also been reports of severe beatings by administrators at two primary feeder schools for the choir, one in Etterzhausen and one in Peilenhofen. One director, identified as Johann M., who headed the Etterzhausen school from 1953-1992, has been cited in several allegations as being particularly abusive.

Ratzinger said boys would open up to him about being mistreated in Etterzhausen.

"But I did not have the feeling at the time that I should do something about it. Had I known with what exaggerated fierceness he was acting, I would have said something," he was quoted as saying by the German paper.

"Of course, today one condemns such actions," Ratzinger said. "I do as well. At the same time, I ask the victims for pardon."

He said he had administered corporal punishment himself.

"At the beginning I also repeatedly administered a slap in the face, but always had a bad conscience about it," Ratzinger said, adding that he was happy when corporal punishment was made illegal in 1980.

Ratzinger said a slap in the face was the easiest reaction to a failure to perform or a poor performance. How hard it was very greatly, depending on who administered it.

The 82-year-old pope and his older brother are close. Joseph Ratzinger had been planning to return to Germany and move his brother into a house with him upon retirement from the Vatican — a plan made moot by his election as pope. He refers to his brother as his trustworthy guide and companion and says his brother helps him to accept old age with courage.

The Vatican moved to defuse criticism after the German justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said Monday that a Vatican secrecy rule has played a role in a "wall of silence" surrounding sexual abuse of children. She cited a 2001 Vatican document — drawn up by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — requiring even the most serious abuse cases to be first investigated internally.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi defended the main ecclesiastical institutions involved, saying they have taken up the matters "promptly and decisively."

"They have shown a desire for transparency, in a way they have accelerated bringing the problem to light by inviting the victims to speak up even when the cases dated to a while back," Lombardi told Vatican Radio.

He said "mistakes" within the church were deplorable and said the cases are pushing it church toward dealing with the problem.

"While we can't deny the gravity of the anguish the church is going through, we cannot give up doing everything possible so that in the end positive results can also be achieved," Lombardi said, citing as goals better children protection and the church's own "purification."

Lombardi declined to comment on the statement attributed to the pope's brother that he slapped people.

He noted that in Canon Law sexual abuse of minors is among the most serious offenses, and said the Vatican's document in 2001 was "a fundamental signal in calling the bishops' attention to the gravity of the problem."

A statement by the U.S. group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called the Vatican's claim that Catholic institutions had been timely in their reaction "depressing and disingenuous."

"Sadly, the truth is just the reverse," Peter Isely, Midwest director of the group. "Regarding pedophile priests and corrupt bishops, the church hierarchy responds only when forced to do so by external pressures."

__

Rizzo reported from Vatican City. Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse


Responding to accusations that its policies encouraged silence about the problem, the Vatican said that the sexual abuse scandals in Germany and other countries were cause for anguish but its response has been prompt and transparent.

The scandal sweeping church institutions in many European countries kept widening Tuesday.

THAT IS A LIE . . .

Here's the church policy set by Ratzinger . . . .

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'by EWAN FLETCHER
Last updated at 22:00 30 September 2006

Top: Tom Doyle and, bottom, Pope Benedict

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.

Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the 'enforcer' of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.

Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.

Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.

Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: "I found out I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself."

And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church's handling of child abuse claims, says: "What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.

"When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there's total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world."

The investigation could not come at a worse time for Pope Benedict, who is desperately trying to mend the Church's relations with the Muslim world after a speech in which he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam was spread by holy war and had brought only evil to the world.

The Panorama programme is presented by Colm O'Gorman, who was raped by a priest when he was 14. He said: "What gets me is that it's the same story every time and every place. Bishops appoint priests who they know have abused children in the past to new parishes and new communities and more abuse happens."

Last night Eileen Shearer, director of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults said: "The Catholic Church in England and Wales (has) established a single set of national policies and procedures for child protection work. We are making excellent progress in protecting children and preventing abuse."




Save Church at all costs --
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-407808/Pope-led-cover-child-abuse-priests.html


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-407808/Pope-led-cover-child-abuse-priests.html

What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.


The document . . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs...men_english.pdf

[hlthe2b]

1. The selection of Ratzinger as Pope--after all he did to cover up

the pedophilia within the Church while serving under Pope JOhn Paul-- has done more to destroy the modern Catholic Church than just about anything I can imagine. Ratzinger, the boy Nazi.... what a horrendous choice to lead the Vatican into the 21st century.

[defendandprotect]

2. These are the same people who are getting our "faith-based" taxpayer funding . . .!!!

Catholic Church, of course, has most of the "faith-based" organizations --

In fact, a few months ago, I read that there was an on-going investigation into

whether the RCC used the "faith-based" money to pay off their pedophile lawsuits--!!!




hmmmm.......

and Obama is INCREASING that funding -- !!!

[TheMadMonk]

4. Or an "inspired" one. After all who is going to piss off the BOSS...

...by revealling more that the absolute minimum necessary to placate the howling masses.

Particularly when said boss was the author of the policy which allowed this problem to continue unchecked for so long.

The evidence of conspiracy to conceal major crimes is so overwhealming that church records across the globe should be subject to immediate seizure. Unfortunately it is highly likely that this would only reveal small disconnected snippets, as the policy authored by Ratzinger, required that these records of abuse be sent to the Vatican, a sovereign nation.

[malaise]

3. Seriously this criminal enterprise should be

shut down. Is there a more corrupt corporation - abusing children in the name of Jebus and assuming they're above the law. Fuck all of them - they have finally been unmarked everywhere.

There is nowhere they go and fail to abuse people's children. They should all be in prison.