A German bishop offered new details about a sex-abuse scandal targeting a famous boys choir in southern Germany once headed by Pope Benedict XVI's brother, in remarks published Saturday. Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, bishop of Regensburg where the Domspatzen (Cathedral Sparrows) choir is based, also confirmed previous reports that Benedict's 86-year-old brother did not head the choir at the time.
The two "remembered" cases of sex abuse at Domspatzen dated back to 1958 and therefore "did not coincide with the period where professor Georg Ratzinger was in charge," Mueller said in a statement published in the Vatican's official Osservatore Romano.
Ratzinger headed the choir between 1964 and 1994, he said.
The Domspatzen allegations are part of a widening sexual abuse scandal rocking Germany's Catholic Church, which also includes reported abuse of minors at a number of Catholic institutions, including a monastic school in Ettal.
According to Mueller, the first sex abuse case involving Domspatzen was committed by the vice principal of a primary school that collaborated regularly with the choir but was an independent establishment.
The man was fired and convicted in the courts, he said.
The second case involved "a person who worked for Domspatzen for seven months" and who was sentenced for sexual abuse 12 years later, Mueller said.
In a "letter to parents" published on its website, the choir acknowledged a child had been abused in the 1950s and a former choir member in the early '60s had recently told a newspaper he had been sexually molested.
The choir said the principal of a boarding school tied to the choir was convicted in relation to the 1950s events and had since died.
But a spokesman for the Regensburg bishopric told AFP Friday that it had further "information about alleged abuse between 1958 and 1973," and said it planned to investigate the allegations.
The German scandals are part of multiple child abuse scandals roiling the Catholic Church in several countries.
A Vatican statement Saturday said it wanted to shed "complete light" on all sex abuse cases.
"The Church's main objective is to render justice to the victims," added the statement which was also published in Osservatore Romano.
In separate remarks published Saturday, top papal advisor Cardinal Walter Kasper said the church needed to be "seriously" cleaned up.
"I think such a shocking problem... needs a wider analysis for maybe the whole church and not just one country," Kasper told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.
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