The brother of Benedict XVI, the former pope, has admitted slapping boys at a Catholic choir school and has been named as partly responsible for a culture of abuse at the school in Germany where at least 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual assault. Georg Ratzinger ran the Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994 and said that slapping boys was common practice at the time. He denied knowledge of sexual abuse. A lawyer brought in to investigate allegations, some dating back to 1945, said in his final report that Mr Ratzinger, 93, could be blamed “for looking away or for failing to intervene”. The report on the school counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence,…

Source: The Times July 18, 2017 23:37 UTC