Pope’s brother’s choir linked to abuse claims

AN ever-widening sexual abuse scandal involving Germany’s Roman Catholic Church spilled into the heart of Pope Benedict XVI’s homeland yesterday when a former member of a boy’s choir led for 30 years by his brother claimed he was a victim.

A former singer came forward with allegations church employees had sexually abused him in the early 1960s, said Clemens Neck, a spokesman for the Regensburg Diocese which oversees the school connected to the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir.

Neck gave no details on the extent of the abuse, but insisted it happened before the Rev Georg Ratzinger, the pope’s brother, took over the choir in 1964. Ratzinger led the choir, comprised of around 500 boys and young men, until his retirement in 1994.