MAINE
Bangor Daily News
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted March 03, 2013
PORTLAND, Maine — John Brennan spent much of the past decade as a deacon in the Catholic Church doing what he did for 25 years as Portland police officer — investigating reports that one person had done something wrong to another.
Brennan, 65, retired Thursday as director of the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. It was not a position he sought but it was job for which now-retired Bishop Joseph Gerry felt Brennan was immensely qualified in 2002 as the sex abuse scandal engulfed the Catholic Church. Brennan continued the job under Bishop Richard J. Malone.
Brennan, who was the first person to hold the position, investigated complaints of sexual abuse and other possible crimes by priests, former priests and other diocesan employees. It was not what he had expected to do when he was ordained in 1998 as one of the first deacons in Maine.
“It was quite similar to police work,” he said of his work as an investigator for the diocese. “Every complaint had the potential be a criminal investigation and in every case where there was any suggestion child sex abuse, I sent a letter to the local district attorney to determine if it was within statute of limitations.”
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