Abuse alleged at choir before pope's brother arrived
An ever-widening sexual abuse scandal involving Germany's Roman Catholic Church spilled into the heart of Pope Benedict XVI's homeland Friday when a former member of a boy's choir led for 30 years by his brother said he was a victim, the Associated Press reports.
A spokesman for the Regensburg diocese, home to the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, said the abuse was alleged to have occurred before the Rev. Georg Ratzinger took over the choir in 1964, the AP reports.
A former singer came forward with allegations church employees had sexually abused him in the early 1960s, spokesman Clemens Neck said.
Ratzinger, the pope's brother, took led the choir, comprosed of around 500 boys and young men, from 1964 until his retirement in 1994.
Ratzinger told public radio Bayerischer Rundfunk on Friday he did not know of any abuse cases at the choir and another spokesman for the diocese, Jakob Schoetz, insisted the known cases of abuse did not happen during Ratzinger's tenure.
"The cases that are known to us at this time did not take place during his tenure," Schoetz wrote.
Comments
Like the Sharia/ Hadood Ordinance in the Muslim world, the Catholic Church and His Holiness the Pope must re-evaluate celibacy requirement for Catholic priests.
It is unnatural to not allow a man to marry a women in compliance with God's plan for Adam and Eve.
For Adam God created Eve so they could live in harmony and cooperation.
I have personally lived in Catholic hostels and have come across priests who were on the prowl for defenseless and easily dominated young boys working in different areas of the Church.
It was well known in Church circles about the attitude of certain priests yet they were allowed to carry on for lack of proof.
It is high time the Catholic church represented in every country on planet earth and doing great work in the cause of charity to allow its priests to get married freely and not be enticed into abusing young boys to vent their sexual frustrations.
Like the Sharia supporters in the Muslim world who are still living in Arabia of 1400 years ago the Catholic Church must move forward and embrace the divine right of human beings to get married and raise a family.
We cannot emulate what God's messengers did as they were chosen and special people, and no human being has the capacity or wherewithal to compare himself to Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammad or Moses.
Posted by: concerned citizen | March 5, 2010 3:19 PM