BishopAccountability.org
	A Bishop Speaks out on Abuse By Stephen Scharper Toronto Star May 24, 2008 http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/429107 "Sexual abuse of minors by a significant number of priests and religious, together with the attempts by many church authorities to conceal the abuse, constitute one of the ugliest stories ever to emerge from the Catholic Church. It is hard to imagine a more total contradiction of everything Jesus Christ stood for, and it would be difficult to overestimate the pervasive and lasting harm it has done to the Church." These are bold, candid words, particularly from the mouth of a bishop. But they have been given episcopal voice by Roman Catholic Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney, Australia. A canon lawyer, Bishop Robinson for almost a decade also chaired the Australian bishops' committee investigating clerical sexual abuse. What he found deeply disturbed him, hastening his retirement and prompting a profound disillusionment with the church he had served for over half a century. Robinson has attempted to both record and confront his disillusionment in his book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus. With its critique of the church's leadership on the scandal and church officials who seem to place ecclesial power ahead of the protection of vulnerable children, Robinson's book has been a religious bestseller down under. Bishop Robinson will be at Emmanuel College in Toronto June 1 to talk about his concern for and critique of the church in light of the pedophilia scandals. Reflecting on his investigation, he writes: "I felt sick to the stomach at the stories that victims told me. I spent many sleepless nights and I lived at a constantly high level of stress. Those years ... led me to a profound disillusionment with many things within the church ... . I was convinced, a number of people, at every level, were seeking to 'manage' the problem and make it 'go away,' rather than truly confront and eradicate it." And, for Robinson, to confront the issue and root it out, the church has to undergo renovation and renewal. "In particular," he asserts, "the there must be change on the two subjects of power and sex." One reason Robinson was deeply distressed was that he himself was abused as a child, not by a priest, but by a stranger. While he claims this was not a repressed memory, it was a shelved one, and the stories of children sexually abused by clergy compelled him to unwrap this painful memory, leading him to an emotional and experiential solidarity with abused victims. Robinson was particularly disheartened by what he saw as a lack of leadership from the papacy when the sexual scandals came to the fore. "I felt that here was the perfect opportunity for the papacy to fulfill its most basic role of being the rock that holds the church together, but this did not happen, and the church fractured." For expressing his disappointment, Robinson was informed that statements and documentation had been sent to Rome for ecclesial review. And recently the Australian bishops have apparently launched an investigation into the orthodoxy of his book, which appears to have prompted Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles to encourage Robinson to cancel his L.A. speaking engagement. For Robinson, there is no reconciliation without truth. The horrific and widespread abuse of children and others by clergy is not a crisis of management or public relations, but of the very fibre and soul of the church itself, a litmus test of institutional integrity. And Robinson has the courage to say so. Stephen Scharper is professor of environment and religion at the University of Toronto. stephen.scharper@utoronto.ca
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