Last week an inflated and often not convincing 425-page report about alleged abuses in the boarding school of the German Catholic boys choir Regensburger Domspatzen was published producing a huge media uproar. There is a political side to the matter as Benedict XVI's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger conducted the choir for many years, and the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, is a former bishop of Regensburg. There have been attempts to use the report in order to smear their names.
The report claims that 547 pupils were victims of abuse. In reality 500 of them claimed to have experienced - quote - "physical violence", an accusation referring to minor incidents that could be made against every school in the world that was operating in the past 70 years. Over 90% of the witnesses of pupils sound like personal frustrations.
It is suspicious that the report blames the alleged violence on an educational system that aimed at producing a musical top performance of the choir and a maximum discipline and motivation of the pupils. At the same time the report insinuates that the educators wanted to - quote - "break the will of the children", although that is the opposite of a maximum motivation.
The report contains many contradictions. On one side it claims that "physical violence" was routine, on the other hand it admits that many pupils had a wonderful time among the Domspatzen and never noticed anything. The report is not even sure how to define "violence".
A big part of the report contains unconvincing episodes, including complaints about bad food, low temperatures in the shower room, or that those who took piano lessons were under pressure to perform. One alleged victim complains that there was no playroom in the school.
Further suspicious is the fact that most alleged victims have not been more than three years at the school. Only 12% of the complainants went through the whole 9-year curriculum.
The alleged victims mostly call the boarding school - quote - "a prison". This is the most common derogatory term for every boarding school in the world. Many pages of the report sound like a demonization of educational methods that were commonly in use in many Western countries and - unlike modern education - yielded excellent results.
Gloria T V News