Terminally ill retired Catholic Bishop to give evidence at child abuse royal commission

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Philippa McDonald

A Sydney Catholic Bishop who is dying of cancer and has been as advocate for a more compassionate approach by the church to victims of clergy abuse is to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday.

“I have cancer and it’s terminal. It’ll be better they take the evidence now than wait for later,” retired bishop Geoffrey Robinson told the ABC.

Bishop Robinson was a key player in the response of the Catholic Church to child sexual abuse by members of the clergy between 1994 and 2003.

“I’ll be telling the royal commission what I know of the story of the Catholic Church’s response, the good and the bad,” he said.

Bishop Robinson was a member and chairman of the Bishops’ National Committee for Professional Standards, part of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, which dealt with complaints of sexual abuse.

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