Bishop Robinson to Cardinal Re: It’s Not So

While in the U.S. and Canada, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson avoided responding to pressure from a Vatican official and some fellow bishops to abandon his book tour. But when he returned to Australia, Bishop Robinson posted his thoughts on the Catholica Australia website:

“In his letter asking me to cancel the tour, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, said, ’It has been brought to my attention by some Bishops in the United States who are concerned that you have been invited by some organizations that are not in communion with the Catholic Church…’.

“This is the exact opposite of my experience. The people who came to listen were mainly older people who had spent their lives as faithful and loyal Catholics, raising their children in that faith and supporting the church in every way they could. They still practice their faith. Yes, there were also victims present, and married priests and gay people and three Catholic women ordained as priests. Some of these were angry, some disillusioned and many were struggling hard to keep faith in the church. But even these disaffected people still cared and still wanted to see a better church.

“To dismiss the entire audience as "not in communion with the church" is a complete failure to understand the book I have written or the response it has evoked among many thousands of Catholics of every age. My overwhelming thought was that, if the church loses these people, it has lost its very soul.”

To read the rest of Bishop Robinson’s thoughts on his US visit go to:
http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/occ/014_occ_030708.php