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Church abuse scandal reaches Pope's brother
Elder sibling admits slapping children
- AP
- Published: 00:00 March 12, 2010
- Image Credit: AP
- Pope Benedict XVI gestures during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, on Wednesday.
Vatican City: Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself.
While there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by Benedict, the launch of an inquiry by German Catholic officials after his brother admitted he slapped children years ago is stirring Vatican fears of a major crisis for the papacy.
Benedict, 82, was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 when he was brought to the Vatican to head the body responsible for investigating abuse cases. During that time, he came under criticism for decreeing that even the most serious abuse cases must first be investigated internally.
Since then, Benedict has taken a strong stand against abuse by clerics in the Roman Catholic Church.
Just weeks before he became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger caused a stir when he denounced ‘filth' in the church and among priests — a condemnation taken as a reference to clerical sex abuse.
German church officials said on Wednesday they will examine what — if anything — Benedict knew about abuse during his time as Munich archbishop.
"We do not know if the pope knew about the abuse cases at the time," church spokesman Karl Juesten said.
Probe
He said the church "assumes" Benedict knew nothing of such cases, but that current Munich Archbishop Reinhard Marx will be "certainly investigating these questions".
Juesten, the liaison between Roman Catholic bishops and the German government, said the German Bishops Conference had asked parishes and church institutions in the country to examine all allegations of the sexual and physical abuse.
Separately, the Regensburg Diocese told AP it will investigate allegations of physical and sexual abuse that have swirled around a renowned choir led by the Benedict's brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger. So far, the sex abuse allegations predate Georg Ratzinger's term as choir director.
Vatican officials have been unable to hide their alarm about the possible implications for the papacy. "There is certainly the suspicion that there are some out there out to damage the church and the pope," said a Vatican official.
The Vatican has spoken up several times in recent days to defend the church as having acted ‘promptly and decisively' regarding the German abuse scandal. But it also noted that problems of sex abuse spread across society and are not limited to the Roman Catholic Church.
When Benedict became pope in 2005, the Vatican was reeling from a massive sex abuse scandal in the US church. The new pope promised a policy of zero tolerance as he went on to apologise and pray with some of the victims while travelling in the US and Australia.
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