AUSTRALIA
9 News
When Catholic bishop Geoffrey Robinson told an international conference he wasn’t happy with the level of support Rome was offering the Australian Church on child sexual abuse he was reprimanded by the Pope’s man in Canberra.
The outspoken former Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney is giving evidence about that “condemnatory” 1996 correspondence with the then papal nuncio and about other run-ins with the hierarchy and its response to abuse at a royal commission in Sydney.
Gail Furness, SC, counsel advising the commission, said the retired bishop, a canon lawyer, would give evidence about how the church handled abuse allegations over four decades.
She said the Catholic Church has operated under a papal instruction of the strictest secrecy when it came to sexual abuse by clergy which has been renewed and expanded by many popes and was still in place.
In his evidence Bishop Robinson, who is terminally ill, said the church’s response to sex abuse allegations over the years was partly to protect reputation and partly to protect fellow priests.
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