The survivor, Brendon Bowkett, having witnessed horrific violence and abuse as a child, is calling for urgent reforms in the way the Catholic Church investigates complaints.

In 2022 Bowkett left New Zealand and is now a paediatric surgeon living in Newcastle, Australia.

He recently spoke out about the abuse he experienced and witnessed at two Catholic schools.

Bowkett says he reported the abuse to the church's complaints body (NOPS) which said it looked at sexual abuse only, not physical abuse.

Change needed

Bowkett, who attended both St Paul's High School and other Catholic institutions in New Zealand, described enduring physical and psychological abuse which even now continues to haunt him.

"The worst part of what I experienced was the violence, the grooming - watching many friends experience really unrelenting psychological and physical violence on a scale that would put these perpetrators in prison if they were still alive" he said.

NOPS and physical abuse

Five years ago, Bowkett lodged an official complaint with the Catholic Church's National Office for Professional Standards.

NOPS issued a statement defending its processes but not clarifying why physical abuse complaints are excluded.

"We take all complaints seriously" the Office stated, though no further explanation was provided about how non-sexual abuse cases are handled.

Bowkett however remains firm in his belief that broader changes are necessary. "In my opinion, we've crossed the threshold and a crime against humanity and against these children has occurred" he said, speaking about the long-term impact on survivors like himself.

Christian Brothers respond

The Christian Brothers Oceania Province, the religious order involved in Bowkett's case, released a statement emphasising their commitment to handling all complaints responsibly.

"All claims are dealt with on their merits and we encourage all people to be independently legally represented" the statement read.

Sources

• RNZ
• RNZ

More than 500 boys suffered abuse at the hands of dozens of teachers and priests at the school that trains the Regensburg Cathedral boys' choir reports, Ulrich Weber.

Weber, an independent investigator, was appointed by the Regensburg diocese to look into the allegations of abuse.

Weber's report says 547 boys at the Domspatzen's school "with a high degree of plausibility" were victims of physical or sexual abuse, or both.

It counted 500 cases of physical violence and 67 of sexual violence, committed by a total of 49 perpetrators.

"Violence, fear and helplessness dominated" the choir's preschool.

"Violence was an everyday method," the report says.

"The whole system of education was oriented toward top musical achievements and the choir's success," Weber reports.

"Alongside individual motives, institutional motives - namely, breaking the will of the children with the aim of maximum discipline and dedication - formed the basis for violence."

Weber also criticises Cardinal Gerhard Muller, who was bishop of Regensburg from 2002 until 2012.

The then Bishop Muller had "a clear responsibility" in the "strategic, organisational and communication weaknesses", Weber says.

In 2012, Pope Benedict appointed Muller to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Decades of abuse

The abuse happened for decades, said Weber, July 18, during a press conference in Regensburg.

Former students of the Domspatzen choir reported that the physical, emotional and even sexual abuse at the school made life there like "a prison, hell and a concentration camp".

Choirmaster admits failure to act

From 1964 to 1994 Ratzinger was the choirmaster attached to the Regensburger Domspatzen school where serious abuse took place.

Ratzinger, the older brother of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, says he was aware of violent incidents that took place at the school, but not the extent of the abuse.

"Had I known at the time what excessive violence he (the principal at the time) was using I would have said something back then," he says.

He says choir boys had referred to physical abuse during concert tours, "but their reports didn't reach me to the extent that I believed I had to intervene."

He has asked victims for forgiveness for his failure to act.

He also says he did not know anything about the boys being sexually abused.

"These things were never discussed," Ratzinger told Catholic newspaper Passauer Neue Presse.

"The problem of sexual abuse that has now come to light was never spoken of."

Ratzinger says he is willing to give evidence to an inquiry into sexual abuse at the school.

Sources

• France 24
• NCR
• RNS
• DW
• Vatican Radio
• The Guardian
• Image: dw

The hand around the throat, the pinching of a nose - in public view in a big city - you can't help wondering what Mr Saatchi's last wife meant when she divorced him for "unreasonable behaviour".

As painful as it must be for Nigella Lawson to have the whole world know about her predicament, it's important that we do, not in some cheap women's magazine tell-all expose, but in the adult world of real life.

We now have proof that when a woman is beautiful, clever, famous and independently wealthy, it's no protection against domestic violence, because that's what an observer photographed on June 6.

Here is all the evidence you need that it doesn't just happen among the under-classes of the world, the people who are not like us.

The sequence is so familiar that an estimated one in four women knows about it first hand.

There is seduction, of course, the apparent meeting of minds, the talk of respect and protestations of love.

There is a shoulder to cry on, good advice given, humour appreciated, the life of the mind and of culture savoured together. Men at every level of society can manifest such things to women who believe a man is necessary to feel whole. Then, slowly, it changes.

This man shouts, Ms Lawson is on record as saying, and then she goes quiet and resentful, she says, as women do, because they don't want a man's anger to escalate.

Where do we learn to be this craven? I call this - the shouting - violence already, because it's about domination and control of another person through fear. Possibly some women behave like this and they are no better, but this week it's about a celebrity woman cook and a famous male art lover. Continue reading

Sources

• Rosemary McLeod in Stuff
• Image: The Guardian

Rosemary McLeod is a NZ journalist and columnist.