Retired Sydney bishop doesn't want fight with U.S. bishops over book

Published: 2008-05-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A retired Australian bishop who has been asked by several U.S. bishops to cancel his book tour said he stands behind his critique of authoritarian and sexual abuses in the church but does not want a battle. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, retired auxiliary bishop of Sydney and former head of the Australian bishops' panel investigating clergy sexual abuse, told Catholic News Service May 21, "A fight between me and the (U.S.) bishops is really something I'm not interested in." Noting that he is not sure if any U.S. bishop has read his 2007 book, "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus," Bishop Robinson said, "I've written about what I believe." In a telephone interview from New Jersey, a stop on his U.S.-Canadian speaking tour, he also commented on a May 6 statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference expressing concern about doctrinal problems in the book. Bishop Robinson said the Australian bishops "did what they felt they had to do and I have no problem with that."

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