The change-oriented Catholics who crowded into Geoffrey Robinson's talks applauded him for his bluntness. Months ago, Robinson had told an audience in Australia, "John Paul II could have stopped this scandal, and he did nothing." For this he was accused of heresy by a ranking cardinal in Rome and told to scrap his US tour. He came anyway, with a speech in his pocket that blamed the last Pope for contributing to the sex scandal that has shaken the church as seismically as Luther shook it more than 500 years ago.
Robinson told his audiences he had great admiration for much of what John Paul II did during his 26-year papacy. "But before they make him a saint, they ought to ask what he did to correct this scandal." He didn't know why the Pope was so silent about the scandal or why he failed to even ask questions about its cause and its cure. He explained, "It's very difficult - even for a Pope - to change the culture."
SMH 1 Jul 2008
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