Stephen Crittenden: But you said the other day that many of the
Australian bishops would agree with a lot of what’s in the book, you think?
Geoffrey Robinson: Up to them, but I believe so. They would agree with
quite a number of things that I’ve said within the book. Even
conservative people, I think that one can ask them Are you satisfied
that the Catholic church has done everything possible to study sexual
abuse in depth and eradicate everything that has to be? I don’t see how
anyone can answer that and say Yes.
Stephen Crittenden: How do you think the book’s going to play out, given
the present state of the Australian church though? There are parts of
the Australian church where people in a pastoral role are actually
looking forward now to thinking about not shoring up the structures as
they are, or reforming them, but thinking about the kind of church we’re
going to have in the future when they’ve collapsed to the ground.
Geoffrey Robinson: Well I’m not thinking that way as yet, that it’s all
going to collapse or any single diocese is going to collapse to the
ground. I would still be hopeful that we can build, I mean the book is
not, I repeat, and I know it’ll be thought of this way, but it’s not an
attack on the church, it’s a desire to see a better church. So it tries
to be constructive. Now many will not see it that way they’ll see it as
a blind attack, but it is a serious attempt to bring about a better church.
