Church in the World

Bishop's book blames Church troubles on its power structure

An Australian bishop who helped to develop the Church's sex abuse policy has criticised compulsory celibacy for priests and Catholic teachings on sex, while calling for reforms that would strengthen the authority of local churches at the expense of the Vatican.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney for 20 years until his retirement three years ago, said that the focus on the ultimate authority of the Pope had encouraged secrecy, cover-ups and the tendency to place protection of the Church's good name above the needs of victims.

In a book published this week, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, Bishop Robinson, a canon lawyer, criticises both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI for what he perceives as a reluctance to deal with the sexual abuse issue.

As a former member of the Church's professional standards committee, Bishop Robinson helped craft "Towards Healing", a document designed to help the Australian Church respond to the sexual abuse crisis.

The bishop reveals that he was abused as an adolescent - though not by a priest or a family member - an experience that gave him an insight into the suffering of abuse victims and increased his disillusionment with the Church.

He told The Sydney Morning Herald that he had kept the secret hidden "in the attic of my mind'" for 50 years until the stories of victims of abuse began to stir "strong echoes".

Bishop Robinson's book comes amid increasing agitation among many Australian Catholics for change and when a growing number of prominent Australian Catholics have been making a case for church reform. More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling on the bishops to consider the ordination of married men and women in order to deal with what they called "a major crisis of ministry and leadership in Australian Catholicism". The petition was originally sent to the country's bishops last June with 36 signatories, including priests, Religious, author Dr Paul Collins, former Australian Broadcasting Corporation board member Sr Veronica Brady, New South Wales judge Chris Geraghty and leading Catholic philosopher Max Charlesworth. The number of petitioners has swollen to 1,136 since the petition went online on the Catholica Australia website early in August.

Last week an outspoken advocate for reform, Canberra and Goulburn auxiliary Bishop Patrick Power, published an open letter to petition organisers, stating that at the heart of the issue was the relationship of the local Church to the universal Church.

"I clearly recognise the need for the local Church to be in communion with the See of Peter but there needs to be much more reciprocity in the relationship. Unless diocesan bishops are allowed to exercise the powers intrinsic to their office, many urgent questions will be neglected," wrote Bishop Power.

A spokeswoman for the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Philip Wilson, of Adelaide, said he had not read Bishop Robinson's book and had no comment.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, also has not responded to the book.

(See Stephen Crittenden, page 6.)