Catholic Sex Abuse Accusations Spread Across Europe

Allegations of sexual abuse of children at Catholic institutions continues to spread across Europe. Some cases question the integrity of Pope Benedict’s own brother.

The New York Times reports that, following the Irish scandal (which we recently reported on), new abuse allegations have surfaced over the last few weeks in the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany.

Rev. Federico Lombardi, Press Office Director for the Vatican, addressed the issue by reading a note on Vatican Radio. In part:

. . . over recent weeks the debate on the sexual abuse of minors has also involved the Church in certain central European countries (Germany, Austria and Holland). And it is on this development that we wish to make some simple remarks.

The main ecclesiastical institutions concerned – the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference – have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago.

Yes, a desire for transparency. Timely and decisive action. Remember those words.

Pope Benedict’s brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, directed the Regensburg boys choir from 1964 to 1994. Thirty years.

A number of abuse cases at the two Catholic Bavarian boarding schools from which the boys were drawn have since surfaced.

The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who lived in the Regensburg boarding school of the choir until 1967, said the school had an “elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust.”

He 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.

The likelihood that Ratzinger was unaware? Wittenbrink comments:

I find it inexplicable that the Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it.

Der Spiegel reports on the “transparency” and “timely and decisive action” taken by the local diocese.

Despite many indications, the Regensburg Diocese did not make abuse cases public until contacted by SPIEGEL last Thursday. Now the chair has pledged to investigate everything rigorously and to present an interim report at the end of March.

“Timely and decisive action.” Covering up sexual abuse cases dating to the 1970s and 1980s is “timely and decisive”? This shows a “desire for transparency”?

Much as anti-gay California lawmaker Roy Ashburn “desired transparency” only after he was arrested for DUI leaving a gay bar, the Catholic cult only “desires transparency” after being caught for its decades-long strings of abuses and crimes.

With transparency like this, who needs curtains?

Georg Ratzinger responded to the allegations in a recent interview.

In an interview published Sunday, Ratzinger was quoted as saying by the Rome daily La Repubblica that there was “discipline and rigor” but no terror during his 30 years as head of the Regensburg choir from 1964 until 1994.

[He] said the abuse accusations also reflected “a certain animosity toward the church.”

That’s right. The people claiming that Catholic priests beat and sexually abused them are only doing so because they hate the church, not because they were beaten and sexually abused by pedophiles who went unpunished.

Related articles:

1. Catholic Church Asks Parishioners to Cover Costs of Sex Abuse Lawsuits
2. Donohue: Catholic Reporters Are Anti-Catholic
3. Catholic Cardinal Blames Islamization of Europe on Atheists
4. In Brief: Sex abuse victim accuses Catholic church of fraud
5. In Brief: Vatican Rules: Ordaining Women Priests a Crime Like Sex Abuse of Children

Mike Daniels is co-editor of Secular News Daily.

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