SAN DIEGO -- A controversial, retired Catholic bishop from Australia spoke in San Diego Tuesday against the wishes of the local diocese.

---

Watch Video

---

Geoffrey Robinson spoke to a crowd packed into the Faculty Club at the University of California at San Diego. He criticized the way the church has handled the sex abuse scandals.

For several years during his tenure as bishop, Geoffrey Robinson helped lead a church effort to respond to the sex abuse cases in Australia.

"I was constantly meeting with victims and hearing their stories. Because of that I was dealing, for the first time in my life, with the sexual abuse I too had suffered as a young person," Robinson said. "The pope of those years was giving no leadership."

Robinson is in the U.S. on a monthlong tour promoting his book, which questions Catholic celibacy rules and takes the church to task for not doing more to confront clergy sexual abuse.

San Diego Bishop Robert Brom is just one of several high-ranking church leaders who have discouraged Robinson from speaking out. But that has not kept the crowds away from Robinson’s speaking engagements.

Richard Sipe is a retired priest and advocate for victims of clergy abuse. He participated in the Tuesday night event.

"[Robinson] is only one of two bishops in the whole world who stood up and said, 'Look, not only is this a problem, but that the church hasn't paid attention to the problem,'" Sipe said.

The San Diego Catholic Diocese has acknowledged that local priests committed sexual abuse in the past and apologized to the victims. Tuesday, the diocese declined to comment on Robinson's visit to San Diego.