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		</div><p>At least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys&#8217; choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992, according to a report.</p>
<p>Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg, which was run for 30 years by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI&#8217;s elder brother, were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.</p>
<p>In 2015, lawyer Ulrich Weber was tasked with producing a report on what happened.</p>
<p>The report said that 547 boys at the Domspatzen school &#8220;with a high degree of plausibility&#8221; were victims of physical or sexual abuse, or both.</p>
<p>It counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by a total of 49 perpetrators.</p>
<p>At the choir&#8217;s pre-school, &#8220;violence, fear and helplessness dominated&#8221; and &#8220;violence was an everyday method&#8221;, it said.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;The whole system of education was oriented toward top musical achievements and the choir&#8217;s success,&#8221;</i> the report said.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Alongside individual motives, institutional motives &#8211; namely, breaking the will of the children with the aim of maximum discipline and dedication &#8211; formed the basis for violence.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>The report&#8217;s authors said they checked the plausibility of 591 potential victims.</p>
<p>The choir was led from 1964 to 1994 by Benedict&#8217;s brother, the Rev Georg Ratzinger.</p>
<p>He has acknowledged slapping pupils after he took over the choir, although such punishments were common in Germany at that time.</p>
<p>He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at the elementary school and did nothing about it, but he was not aware of sexual abuse.</p>
<p>The report faulted him &#8220;in particular for &#8216;looking away&#8217; or for failing to intervene&#8221;.</p>
<p>It also cited criticism by victims of the Regensburg diocese&#8217;s initial efforts to investigate past abuse.</p>
<p>It said the bishop at the time the allegations surfaced, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, bears &#8220;clear responsibility for the strategic, organisational and communicative weaknesses&#8221; of those efforts.</p>
<p>Cardinal Mueller became the head of the Vatican&#8217;s doctrine office in 2012. Pope Francis recently removed him from that job.</p>
<p>Current Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer has already announced plans to offer victims compensation of between 5,000 and 20,000 euros (£4,440 and £17,760) each by the end of this year.</p>
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