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Pope's Brother: I Overlooked Choir Abuse

Georg Ratzinger also admits to slapping students in the face

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 9, 2010 2:32 PM CST
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(Newser) – Pope Benedict’s brother today revealed that he used to slap pupils in the face at the Catholic school in Germany whose prestigious choir he led, and that he’d ignored allegations of more serious physical abuses. “Pupils told me about what went on,” Georg Ratzinger said in an interview today. “But it didn’t dawn on me from their stories that I should do something. I was not aware of the extent of these brutal methods.”

“At the start, I also slapped people in the face,” the 86-year-old priest added, “but I always had a bad conscience.” He says the school headmaster disciplined students that way as well. The choir Georg Ratzinger led from 1964 to 1994 is at the center of an exploding Catholic school abuse scandal in Germany. Sexual abuse has been alleged as well, but Ratzinger denied any knowledge of that.

Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, gives interviews in Regensburg, southern Germany, in this April 20, 2005 file photo.
Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, gives interviews in Regensburg, southern Germany, in this April 20, 2005 file photo.   (AP Photo/Uwe Lein,File)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
OG_Travis
Mar 10, 2010 3:06 PM CST
Religion. Just like government institutions, has self-preservation built in. The religions of today have made it through a Darwinian evolution. The ones that said you have to believe or you're doomed and give us lots of money are the ones that survived to this society. Seems like a pretty good fucking sales plan. I wish the products I sold has such a perfect setup behind them. At least I believe in what I push and I don't hold the progression of society back even worse.
followupnewsnetwork
Mar 10, 2010 1:51 PM CST
This religion of theirs is at the top of the list of "acts against humanity". They have raped our children and the rest of you followers just let this blight on humanity continue. Everyone in that religion is just as guilty as the molesting priests. Your religion is an act against nature.
mel09
Mar 10, 2010 1:09 PM CST
“Pupils told me about what went on,”; “But it didn’t dawn on me from their stories that I should do something. I was not aware of the extent of these brutal methods.” WTF, he just said he used these methods himself “but I always had a bad conscience.” does that mean he felt that disciplining children with these types of methods was abusive, extreme or wrong? People like this are why children continue to suffer all over the world.

 
Pope Benedict XVI • Catholic Church • sexual abuse • priest sex abuse • Georg Ratzinger • Catholic school

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