In a day of remarkable evidence before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson offered damning assessments of the most senior Catholic clerics on the planet. Pope John Paul II ‘handled the abuse poorly’ Cardinal George Pell was a ‘most ineffectual bishop’ and ‘the majority of the priests wished he’d get transferred somewhere else.’ Even Pope Francis is not providing ‘real leadership.’

“But his most chilling and telling statement about the Catholic church was the one he made about the church hierarchy’s response to revelations about child sexual abuse: “What we got was silence, so bishops were loyal to the silence.”

Commentary by Kristina Keneally in The Guardian — Click here to read the rest of this column. Kristina Keneally is a Guardian columnist and 42nd premiere of New South Wales, who holds a Master’s degree in theology.