Marilyn Rodrigues of the Catholic Weekly recently reviewed Fr Brennan’s book on the Pell Affair, Observations on the Pell Proceedings, and commented on a 40 minute interview with him. Ms Rodrigues focuses on the staggering failure of Victoria Police to do their job without fear or favour. Indeed, it is clear, as it is in other examinations of VICPOL’s prosecution of Cardinal Pell, that they were out to get him. Either that or they were guilty of an ineptitude worthy of the most primitive tinpot dictatorship. I go for the former. One wonders how those senior VICPOL officer are not too ashamed to hide their faces. The 40-minute interview with Fr Brennan comes at the end of the review.
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The sting operation that came apart
By Marilyn Rodrigues -August 27, 2021
Victoria’s policing and criminal justice systems erred so seriously in relation to Cardinal George Pell that it shows that not even victims of abuse or bona fide complainants, let alone an accused person like the cardinal, could rely on them, says Australian legal expert Fr Frank Brennan SJ.
The law professor and rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne attended key parts of Cardinal Pell’s trials and appeals and had access to court transcripts.
He became convinced that the cardinal was innocent of the historical sexual abuse charges brought against him, and that he should never have had to face them.