A defense attorney for accused priest James J. Brennan spent much of his cross-examination Monday of a canonical judge questioning the process used to try priests under church law as well as the era of quick judgment within the Roman Catholic Church after its bishops adopted in 2002 new guidelines for dealing with criminal behavior by priests.
Many of the attorney’s one-liners espousing the unfairness of the process to his client were met with objections from the prosecution that were always sustained by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, but not of course before they were heard by the jury.
