In a standing-room only community hall Wednesday night, a retired Australian bishop asked not to speak about the Catholic clergy sexual abuse by some American bishops outlined his theory on its causes and how to move forward. The Most Rev. Geoffrey Robinson said his own experience of being abused at a young age – not at the hands of a priest – and listening to hundreds of sexual-abuse victims for about nine years starting in 1994 when he was put in charge of a task force to develop guidelines for dealing with clerical sex abuse cases in Australia, convinced him that the issues needed to be dealt with head on.
He grew certain that there must be a study of immediate causes of abuse, including what he termed the unhealthy psychology, unhealthy ideas on power and sex and unhealthy living conditions among priests, Robinson told the more than 100 gathered at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Center.
"I am suggesting that when these three things come together, we're most likely to find the murky world out of which abuse arises," said the silver-haired Robinson, who is on a monthlong tour of the United States to promote his book "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus."
Robinson had written a courtesy note to American bishops whose diocesan area he was planning to speak at about his book, including Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange. Several bishops, including Brown, asked Robinson to cancel his tour.
Robinson argues in his book that the sex-abuse scandal forces all Catholics to re-examine the fundamental issues that permitted the abuse to take place, including attitudes toward power and sexuality, according to the Web site of the Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic group whose Orange County affiliate co-hosted his stop here.
Sherida Ruiz of Anaheim, whose son was abused at an Anaheim parish when he was 10, said it was good to hear Robinson speak and she left with a little more understanding of why other bishops did not step up and intervene.
Robinson said he too could be blamed for "cowardice" because he only began speaking out after he retired in 2004, but the powerlessness of bishops and deference to papal authority is what kept many from speaking out.
"There are bishops who agree with significant parts of what I have said. It's very difficult for them to come out," he said.
The causes and the inadequate response of the church to the sexual-abuse scandal inevitably leads one to the examination of the role of power and sex throughout the church, said Robinson, whose 60-minute talk was interrupted by applause on a few occasions.
"We must be free to ask questions about those two subjects," he said. That is also where the fundamental difference lies between him and the authorities that are questioning his book, he said.
"I say let's find out everything and anything that may have contributed" to sexual abuse by clergy, he said. "And if it causes us to ask questions about church law and teachings, then I think that we must ask the questions."
He also poignantly but briefly and without offering details spoke of being abused in his youth.
"The abuse that I suffered was put in the attic of my mind," he said. "I was so innocent that I didn't even know what the guy did. It confused me. It sat there for 50 years. And it was only when I was dealing with abuses of others … that I finally brought this thing down from the attic and for the first time named it sexual abuse."
He spoke broadly about changing a church culture that holds priests and the pope as infallible and urged that a conversation, not confrontation, with church leaders needs to happen. Pope John Paul II, who he said led with authority, did not exercise the same as the scandal rocked the Catholic Church.
"His absence of any leadership in this field left us deeply confused," Robinson said. "Despite the welcome statements made by Pope Benedict, we believe there's still a need for a public apology" to show the victims of sexual abuse that they were not at fault.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce