BERLIN (AP) A prominent German Catholic activist group has called on Pope Benedict XVI to explain what he knew about sexual abuses in Bavaria during his tenure as bishop there.

The spokesman for We Are the Church, Christian Weisner, told the Associated Press on Sunday that the pope must address whether there was abuse during his time as bishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1981.

Weisner asks, "Can he say with good conscience there were no such cases at that time?"

A widening abuse scandal is rocking the Catholic Church in Germany, including a case at a monastery school in the Munich diocese and another connected to a prestigious Regensburg boys choir that was led by the pope's brother for many years.