Writer
Frank Brennan
Frank Brennan AO is a Jesuit priest and Rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the PM Glynn Institute at Australian Catholic University and an Adjunct Professor at the Thomas More Law School at ACU.
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. The hypocrisy of it all is breath-taking.
As you listen to the self-satisfied, self-congratulatory observations of our Australian representatives at the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants and at the Obama summit, just ask yourself what Messrs Turnbull and Dutton have done to provide a humane solution for the proven refugees on Nauru (and Manus Island), given that after three years the Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. Why Turnbull has no option other than a plebiscite on Same Sex Marriage
In The Australian Paul Kelly writing on the same sex marriage plebiscite said (23/8), ‘Lawyer and priest Frank Brennan, who has always argued the issue should properly be decided by parliament, told this column: “Contrary to Justice Kirby I have urged proponents of same-sex marriage to support legislation for a plebiscite because there is Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. Time to defuse Nauru and Manus Island time bombs
On the weekend, I joined Robert Manne, Tim Costello and John Menadue in calling for an end to the limbo imposed on proven refugees on Nauru and Manus Island. I think this can be done while keeping the boats stopped. I think it ought be done. Appearing on the ABC 7.30 program last Thursday afterThe Continue reading »
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ROBERT MANNE, FRANK BRENNAN, TIM COSTELLO & JOHN MENADUE. A solution to our refugee crisis
This article was posted in today’s The Age. There are two powerful arguments about the plight of the refugees dying a slow death in the offshore processing centres Australia has established and which it maintains on Nauru and Manus Island. The supporters of the present policy argue that we cannot bring these refugees to Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Refugees – John Howard could do it. Why not Malcolm Turnbull?
My quandary remains: if John Howard was able to keep the boats stopped while closing Nauru and Manus Island, why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? If John Howard was able to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle some of the caseload why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? I just don’t buy the line that the people smugglers have Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. How to Stop the Boats Decently after the election
In her valedictory speech on 17 June 2013 after 20 years in parliament Judi Moylan reminded us: If we are committed to stopping the deaths at sea, in this most intransigent of political arenas, our parliament must find a way to forge a national consensus before we can possibly entertain any hope of achieving Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. Asylum policies and the election.
The following is an extract from a speech by Frank Brennan at the Yass Catholic Parish Pot Luck Dinner on Saturday 28 May 2016. The full text of the speech is in the link below. John Menadue Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Manus Island proposal.
Asylum seekers on Manus Island should be brought to Australia and processed.  Those who are refugees should be permitted to stay in Australia. Neither the Liberal Party nor the Labor Party agree. The race to the bottom and the race against time is now on as the country prepares to go into election mode on or about 12 Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Cheque book solution on asylum is unconstitutional
A bench of five justices of the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest court in Papua New Guinea, has unanimously ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is unconstitutional. The successful applicant in the case was Belden Norman Namah, the PNG Leader of the Opposition. Unlike the Australian Constitution, the PNG Constitution Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Deja vu for Timor as Turnbull neglects boundary talks
When Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister six months ago, our Timorese neighbours thought there might be an opportunity to draw a line on the past and to kick start the negotiation of a permanent maritime boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste. For the moment, they find themselves sadly mistaken. Rui Maria de Araujo, the fairly new Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. An Unholy Mess: Cardinal Pell, the Royal Commission are Owed Justice, not Vigilantism
Cardinal George Pell still has a lot of questions to answer before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. On medical advice he has decided not to risk the long plane flight home from Rome. This makes things much harder for victims seeking closure. It makes things harder for others, including members Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Taxpayer’s Liability for Long Term Detention on Nauru (and Manus Island)
As the Commonwealth Government contemplates what to do with the Bangladeshi woman in the recent High Court asylum case and her baby born in Australia, it will be relevant to consider the possible civil liability of the Commonwealth for its participation in her detention on Nauru for six months at a time when the Commonwealth Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. High Court not the answer to Nauru depravity
The moral depravity of Australian funded and orchestrated holding of asylum seekers, including children, on Nauru and Manus Island is to continue. On Wednesday the High Court made clear that it is in no position to question the retrospective law passed by the Commonwealth Parliament on 30 June 2015 authorising the Australian Government to do Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Meeting Pope Francis – the planet and markets.
41 years a Jesuit, I had never met a pope. Back in 1986, I was adviser to the Australian Catholic Bishops on Aboriginal land rights. Pope John Paul II came to Alice Springs, met with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and spoke strongly about the rights of Aborigines to retain title to their traditional lands. Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Free speech and the plebiscite on same sex marriage
Chris Puplick, a former senator and former president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, is one of a rising chorus expressing strong objections to the Australian Catholic bishops daring to evangelise and speak publicly about their views on same sex marriage. Writing in The Australian on 5 December 2015, Puplick asserts: ‘When a person or group of Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Cardinal Pell, his lawyers and the Royal Commission
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is about to recommence its case study on the Catholic Church in Ballarat. Last week, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported: ‘Victims of child sexual abuse look set to be grilled by lawyers for Cardinal George Pell in a bid to quash explosive allegations he was Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Border control gulags have had their time
What are the chances of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten agreeing by Christmas that it’s time to close the refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island? Turnbull and Shorten already agree that the boats coming from Indonesia should be stopped. The boats are now being stopped, if need be, with turnbacks, which neither side of Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson at the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The royal commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues to fill us with dread that we have not yet adequately identified why the incidence of abuse reported in our institutions is higher than in other churches. The divisions amongst our bishops, previously unreported and unknown previously to many of the faithful, are disheartening. Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Four preconditions for supporting marriage equality.
A committed Catholic gay man, whose integrity I admire and whose hurt from ongoing homophobia I feel, recently asked me to sign a letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott urging that Coalition members be granted a conscience vote and that the Commonwealth Marriage Act be amended promptly to include same sex marriage. He assured me that Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. ‘Amplifying That Still Small Voice’. Book Launch.
‘Amplifying That Still Small Voice’ A collection of essays by Frank Brennan SJ Book Launch. Dates and times of the 2015 Book launches of Fr Frank Brennan’s latest book, ‘Amplifying That Still, Small Voice’: 1. Tuesday 2 June North Sydney Catholic Parish Hall, 7.30 pm. 2. Wednesday 3 June Hobart Town Hall, 6.15 pm. 3. Friday Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. ANZAC Centenary Homily.
 ANZAC Centenary Homily Harvard Memorial Church 25 April 2015 Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO Homily This Memorial Church here at Harvard was dedicated on Armistice Day 1932 in memory of those who died in World War I. The inscription over the south entrance to the memorial room reads, ‘In grateful memory of the Harvard men Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Still seeking a way of stopping the boats decently
This is part of the Gasson Lecture which I delivered at Boston College today: I return to Australia accepting that my political leaders will always maintain a commitment to stopping the boats, no matter what political party they represent;  but I return insisting that there is a need for international co-operation to determine how decently Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Cunneen v ICAC
Margaret Cunneen is a high profile public prosecutor. The NSW Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) wanted to investigate her for corrupt behaviour, but not in relation to anything she did as a prosecutor. They wanted to investigate her behaviour as a private citizen, she being the mother of a boy whose girlfriend was involved in Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Promoted Pell and the Sacked Morris: Two Catholic Bishops emerging from the Royal Commission
This week the royal commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published three reports relating to the Catholic Church. Understandably the media has focused on the appropriately damning findings made by the royal commission against Cardinal Pell in his ruthless conduct of the Ellis case. Having found that the Archdiocese of Sydney fundamentally Continue reading »
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High Court decision on Tamil asylum seekers
The majority decided that the detention from 1 to 27 July 2014 was lawful at all times and thus there was no claim to damages for the detention. Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Vatican’s Synod Questions for the Australian Catholic Church
Following up on the Relatio Synodi, the Vatican has now released the lineamenta (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20141209_lineamenta-xiv-assembly_en.html) for next year’s synod on the family. They have appended a list of 46 questions and they want the world’s Catholic bishops’ answers by April. This will be a demanding task for the Australian bishops for three additional reasons. First, they Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Cardinal Pell precedent.
Speaking of the financial reforms in the Vatican, Cardinal Pell says: ‘The first principle was that the Vatican should adopt contemporary international standards, much as the rest of the world does. The second principle meant that Vatican policies and procedures would be transparent. The third important principle within the Vatican was that there should be Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Making the world safer for children.
The United Nations has developed an elaborate system of committees to oversee compliance by nation states with a broad range of international human rights instruments. These committee processes are sometimes used by nongovernmental organizations pushing their own particular causes. Of late, a group called SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Women Priests in the Catholic Church – Can we at least talk about it?
There was an interesting exchange on CBS 60 Minutes here in the USA on Sunday night between Cardinal O’Malley and Norah O’Donnell (See http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cardinal-sean-omalley-works-with-pope-francis-to-reform-catholic-church/). Here is part of the interview: Norah O’Donnell: The church says it’s not open to the discussion about ordaining women. Why not? Cardinal Seán O’Malley: Not everyone needs to be ordained Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The G20 Agenda and Pope Francis
The leaders of the world’s 19 largest economies (together with the EU) are meeting in Brisbane this weekend at the annual G20 meeting. Australia is the host and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is the president this year. The host country gets to put its stamp on the agenda. Last year at St Petersburg, the G20 Continue reading »
