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Geoffrey Robinson had a lifelong passion for Mark’s Gospel, generally acknowledged as the first, and he was compelled to bring it alive for teachers and students. He felt that despite good religious education curricula, students and ordinary people from all walks of life often didn’t really meet or engage with the person of Jesus Christ. They had learned about him, but not understood how Jesus or his story might affect them. In Mark, so many characters encounter Jesus and their lives change for good.
In this his final work, Geoffrey has designed for his readers a dramatic format which makes the story compelling reading. It is a story of the failure of humanity to accept his message and bring about a ‘change of heart and mind’.
Geoffrey Robinson was ordained for in 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 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. He died from cancer on 29 December 2020.
