MORE than 230 children who sang in a German boys’ choir led for 30 years by the brother of former Pope Benedict XVI have come forward to say they were abused.
The New York Times says the boys were abused over a period of almost four decades.
A lawyer commissioned by the choir, Ulrich Weber, said that every third member of the choir and an attached school suffered some kind of physical abuse.
Blame has been laid at the feet of the late Johann Meier, who was director of a lower school attached to the choir from 1953 until his retirement in 1992.
The choir was conducted by Benedict’s brother, the Reverend Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994.
Asked whether he had known of the abuse, Mr Weber said, “After my research, I must assume so.”
