Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A priest is prosecuted for allegedly trying to get child porn. Another priest castigates the authorities for prosecuting his friend, saying he’s suffered enough. Yeah, I’ve heard it before too.
This case takes places in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. Father Robert Brooks, who has resigned his parish and left active ministry because of the allegations, is being prosecuted by Commonwealth Attorney Jim Plowman. Brooks’ friend, Father Sean Rousseau, has written to the judge complaining about Plowman’s prosecution of Brooks, saying it is “not Christian” and that Plowman is “a man who calls himself a Catholic, yet he purposefully persecutes a priest in the public forum for a private weakness.”
Making excuses for the inexcusable
