'Some popes gave out the wrong message', retired bishop tells sex abuse inquiry

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
August 24, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/some-popes-gave-out-the-wrong-message-retired-bishop-tells-sex-abuse-inquiry-20150823-gj61dm.html

Retired Catholic Bishop Geoffrey Robinson arrives at the commission on Monday. Photo by Peter Rae

A retired Catholic bishop has told a royal commission that the Vatican failed to show leadership on the issue of clerical sexual abuse and Cardinal George Pell had "destroyed" a unified Australian response to victims.

Geoffrey Robinson, former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney and an architect of the church's response to abuse claims, told a royal commission no one wanted to tackle the issue of clerical sexual assault. 

In a day of testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Bishop Robinson said sexual abuse had been covered up by the church and suspect priests were moved between parishes due to a failure of leadership within the church.

"The message the popes have been giving out have been very important and I think that some popes gave out the wrong message ... and some archbishops too," he said.

The 78-year-old, who is undergoing chemotherapy for terminal cancer, told the royal commission he was shocked when he first heard allegations about Australian priests abusing children at a meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in the mid-1980s.

When abuse claims surfaced internationally in the 1990s, Pope John Paul II did not immediately condemn the issue, Bishop Robinson told the commission.

"What we got from him was silence," he said. "Bishops were loyal to the silence."

He told the commission the Catholic Church's current leader, Pope Francis, has also failed to show authority on the issue of sexual abuse.

"We still haven't had that kind of leadership, not even from Francis," he said.

In his evidence, Bishop Robinson said he started drafting a national response to sexual abuse within the church in 1994 and was close to announcing what would become the Towards Healing protocol  at the end of 1996 when Cardinal Pell dropped a "bombshell".

Cardinal Pell, then  Archbishop of Melbourne, announced the diocese would release its own protocol, known as the Melbourne Response, which required alleged victims to consult church lawyers as a first point of contact.

"He destroyed our unity," Bishop Robinson said.

Bishop Robinson told the commission a national response would be the most effective.

"As long as each bishop was doing his own thing, we would never have a good answer," he said.

The commission heard Cardinal Pell was compelled to come up with a response after then Victorian premier Jeff Kennett forced the issue.

"[Cardinal Pell] said to me Jeff Kennett had said to him, 'You fix it or I'll fix it for you'," Bishop Robinson recalled in evidence.

He told the commission that prior to an official policy on allegations of sexual abuse, accused priests were routinely removed from the church

"In one way it's cover up; in another way it's more than cover up," he said. "It's solving the problem, it's getting rid of it."

Bishop Robinson told of his frustration in seeking assistance with drafting a protocol on sex abuse allegations within the church.

"No one - no one - wanted to touch this subject of sexual abuse," he said.

"That was within the church. On a couple of occasions I made an approach to government ... I got nowhere."

Bishop Robinson called on the royal commission to recommend a national redress scheme for victims of institutional abuse. 

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan​ said a report on redress will be given to the Attorney-General on Monday.

The hearing has adjourned.