Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has banned controversial Bishop Geoffrey Robinson from speaking in the archdiocese but the controversial former Sydney bishop has hit back at criticism of his book by the Australian bishops. The Age reports Bishop Robinson says that the Church is trying to restrict debate on sexual abuse.
In a statement replying to his condemnation by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference last week, Bishop Robinson said that he was disappointed but not surprised, the paper says.
Bishop Robinson, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, who for a decade headed efforts by the Australian Catholic Church to tackle sexual abuse, resigned in 2004.
Last year he published Confronting Sex and Power in the Catholic Church, arguing that until the Church considered radical reform from the Pope down, it was not serious about tackling clerical sexual abuse.
However, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement saying that Bishop Robinson did not understand teaching about the authority of Christ and the Church.
Bishop Robinson, who is on a lecture tour in the US, said it was reasonable to ask questions about power and sex in the Church.
"The bishops appear to be saying that, in seeking to respond to abuse, we may investigate all other factors contributing to abuse, but we may not ask questions concerning ways in which teachings, laws, and attitudes concerning power and sex within the Church may have contributed," he said. "The statement of the Australian bishops is not unexpected, but it is disappointing.
"My book is about the response to the revelations of sexual abuse within the Church. Sexual abuse is all about power and sex, so it is surely reasonable to ask questions about power and sex in the Church.
"This imposes impossible restrictions on any serious and objective study, and it is where I have broken from the Bishops Conference. We must be free to follow the argument wherever it leads," Bishop Robinson concluded.
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