Church trying to ‘limit’ abuse debate

Barney Zwartz

May 17, 2008

THE Sydney bishop disowned by Australia’s Catholic bishops as failing to understand basic church teaching says the church is trying to restrict debate on sexual abuse.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson released a statement yesterday replying to his condemnation by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference last week, saying he was disappointed but not surprised. Bishop Robinson, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, who for a decade headed efforts by the Australian Catholic Church to tackle sexual abuse, resigned in disillusionment in 2004.

Last year he published Confronting Sex and Power in the Catholic Church, arguing that until the church considered radical reform from the Pope down, it was not serious about tackling clerical sexual abuse.

The bishops’ conference published an unsigned statement on its website saying that Bishop Robinson did not understand teaching about the authority of Christ and the church.

Bishop Robinson, who is on a lecture tour in the US, said it was reasonable to ask questions about power and sex in the church. “The bishops appear to be saying that, in seeking to respond to abuse, we may investigate all other factors contributing to abuse, but we may not ask questions concerning ways in which teachings, laws, and attitudes concerning power and sex within the church may have contributed,” he said. “We must be free to follow the argument wherever it leads.”

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahoney has denied Bishop Robinson permission to speak in his diocese next month.

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