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	Outspoken Catholic Bishop on Sex Abuse Holds Public Talk Tuesday By Onell R. Soto Union-Tribune June 9, 2008 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080609-1229-bn09bishop.html SAN DIEGO – A Roman Catholic bishop who questions whether the church's celibacy rules have played a role in leading to childhood sexual abuse by priests is speaking in San Diego, defying church leaders. Retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney, Australia, was asked by San Diego Bishop Robert Brom and several other American bishops – and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony – to stay away. He is banned from speaking on church property in several dioceses. A victim of sexual abuse as a child, Robinson went on to become a church law attorney and bishop and co-chaired a committee investigating abuse of children by Australian clergy. Then he broke ranks, retired and wrote a book taking on the church's response to the crisis. "Sexual abuse is about power and sex," he said in an interview Monday morning. "To respond to it, we have to investigate those two issues, power and sex, and follow the argument wherever it leads." Robinson met with victims of abuse Sunday; is taking part Monday in a discussion with lawyers, professors and authors who have dealt with the sex abuse crisis; and is speaking publicly at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Faculty Club at the University of California San Diego. In his book, Robinson questions obligatory celibacy, criticizes the leadership of popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II and says the church hasn't faced up to the sex abuse scandal and its causes. The book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus," led the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to investigate and then chastise him. "After correspondence and conversation with Bishop Robinson, it is clear that doctrinal difficulties remain," the bishops wrote. "Central to these is a questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively." Robinson said the difference is in perspective. "They are starting from all the teaching and law, and they are saying you may not question any of these, not even in response to abuse. I am starting from the opposite end." Onell Soto: (619) 593-4958; onell.soto@uniontrib.com.
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