Australian bishop says church is failing victims of clergy sex abuse

Published: 2007-08-27

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- The bishop who developed the Australian Catholic Church's protocols for dealing with cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors says the church is failing victims and not confronting the systemic causes of sexual abuse and making changes that will make ministries healthier places. In a new book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church," Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, 70, a retired auxiliary bishop of Sydney, writes, "I am convinced that if the pope had spoken clearly at the beginning of the revelations, inviting victims to come forward so that the whole truth, however terrible, might be known and confronted, and firmly directing that all members of the church should respond with openness, humility, honesty and compassion, consistently putting victims before the good name of the church, the entire response of the church would have been far better. Even now I cannot see evidence that a true confrontation of the problem is occurring," said the book, released in late August. "The staff of those clinical facilities specially set up for the treatment of priests and religious who have offended against minors have not been asked by Roman authorities for their findings on the causes of abuse."

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