Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger: I slapped choir pupils

[IndianaGreen]

Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger: I slapped choir pupils

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

The brother of Pope Benedict has admitted he slapped pupils in the face at a German school where he led the choir, but said he had been unaware of the brutality of the discipline there.

Rev Georg Ratzinger (86) made the comments to a German paper yesterday following charges of sexual and physical abuse in Catholic schools in the Pope's native Bavaria.

“Pupils told me on concert trips about what went on. But it didn't dawn on me from their stories that I should do something. I was not aware of the extent of these brutal methods,” he told the Passauer Neue Presse.

“If I had known about the excess of force... I would have said something. I ask the victims for forgiveness.”

Rev Ratzinger led the “Domspatzen” (Cathedral Sparrows), the official choir for the Regensburg diocese, from 1964 to 1994. “At the start, I also slapped people in the face, but I always had a bad conscience,” he said.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/popersquos-brother-georg-ratzinger-i-slapped-choir-pupils-14713042.html#ixzz0jOjhr6Wv

In most jurisdictions in America, Georg would have been arrested and prosecuted for child abuse.

[rfranklin]

1. And sometimes their bottoms happened to be bare...

what can one do when confronted by a firm, young buttocks?