US Clergy Tell Aussie Critic to Go Home

On orders from the Vatican, a dozen top US bishops have asked their Australian colleague to cancel his American book tour, the Los Angeles Times reports. But Geoffrey Robinson, former auxiliary bishop of Sydney, vows to keep on promoting Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, which blames clergy sex abuse on the Vatican's policy of forced celibacy.

The book has made Robinson persona non grata in Rome. “I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles,” wrote LA Cardinal Roger Mahoney in a letter to Robinson. But Robinson intends to ignore that dictum, and the canon law behind it. “I'm not looking for any confrontation,” Robinson said. “Let's start from abuse and follow that where it leads.” (More Catholic Church stories.)