Geoffrey James Robinson

Geoffrey James Robinson (born 1937) is a retired Australian Roman Catholic bishop.

Robinson was ordained for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney in 1960. He earned advanced degrees in philosophy, theology and canon law, first in Australia and subsequently in Rome. From 1967 until 1983, after a few years as a parish priest, he taught canon law at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. In addition to serving as Chief Justice of the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal, he was secretary and then president of the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand.

For many years Robinson served as the Chairman of the Sydney Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Board and the Australian Catholic Education Commission for New South Wales. Finally, he worked extensively in the areas of ecumenism and professional standards in ministry. In 1984, he was named an auxiliary bishop of Sydney, combining administrative work with his tribunal and other duties.

In May 2002, Robinson called on Pope John Paul II to commission a church-wide study of clerical sex abuse.

Robinson retired in July 2004 with health issues and is now a bishop emeritus.

According to Pat Power, then Auxiliary Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, addressing Catholic Social Services of Australia in September 2007,

Bishop Robinson's newly published book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church is a brave exposition of what the author judges to be some of the root causes of abuse. He sees this crisis as an opportunity for the whole Church to 'read the signs of the times' in thoroughly re-examining whole areas of its life which are in need of reform.

He pleads for open and honest discussion, painful though it might be. Ultimately, he recognises that it is the truth which sets us free. In no area of Church life should we back away from the hard questions. At this point in the history of Catholic Social Services Australia we are at a 'kairos' moment, a time of challenge and risk but also of great hope and opportunity. Bishop Robinson would be telling his old colleagues to face up to this moment with courage and confidence and in a spirit of dialogue and mutual trust.

On 6 May 2008, however, 10 days before Robinson's scheduled public lecture at Temple University in Philadelphia—the first event in a month-long speaking tour in the United States and Canada—the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement critical of aspects of Robinson's book, noting:

We are deeply indebted to him for his years of effort to bring help and healing to those who have suffered sexual abuse and for what he has done to establish protocols of professional standards for Church personnel in this area. . . . The book's questioning of the authority of the Church is connected to Bishop Robinson's uncertainty about the knowledge and authority of Christ himself. Catholics believe that the Church, founded by Christ, is endowed by him with a teaching office which endures through time. This is why the Church's Magisterium teaches the truth authoritatively in the name of Christ. The book casts doubt upon these teachings.

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