Bishop urges pope to call a council on sex abuse

June 6, 2013

In a press conference with international media Tuesday, Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson formally launched a petition asking Pope Francis to call a council on the global clergy sex abuse crisis.

Robinson, a retired auxiliary bishop from Sydney, created the petition in conjunction with the release of his latest book, For Christ’s Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic ChurchŠfor Good. The book, like the petition, calls on the church hierarchy to confront the systemic causes, like moral immaturity and the celibate culture, that have contributed both to the abuse and to the bishops’ woefully inadequate response to the crisis.

The petition arrived at an especially heightened moment for the subject of clergy sexual abuse in Australia. Just last week, the third (and by far the largest) Australian Royal Commission began its inquiry into the ways in which church leaders responded to revelations of sexual abuse.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Oceania’s highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric, was subjected to nearly five hours of questioning during a parliamentary hearing May 27. In course of his testimony,Pell claimed that a “fear of scandal” and a desire to “respect the reputation of the church” led to the decades long cover-up and insisted that individuals, not the church’s structure, were to blame for the mishandling of sex abuse cases.

But no matter how well the Royal Commission brings to light the bishops’ mishandling of abuse cases and makes recommendations, Robinson points out that it is not equipped to investigate and remove the root causes of abuse and has no jurisdiction over the church worldwide. Only a council, he argues in his petition, can make the changes necessary to eliminate this epidemic and prevent it from plaguing the church’s future.

As of Wednesday, the petition has garnered more than 19,000 signatures. Days before the launch, I had a phone interview with Bishop Robinson. Below is the text of our conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length. [More]

SOURCE:

National Catholic Reporter