Rogue Justice, as Bentham Would Put It

From the police, through the legislature, through the judges, we have seen a man, Cardinal George Pell, badly wronged by Victoria’s justice system. Were it not for the resounding and unanimous joint judgment of the High Court, overturning the conviction and substituting an acquittal, that wrong could have seen Pell spend his final years in prison.

Given the current trend to see everything these days through the lense of identity politics – which amounts to a Marxist-like and massively over-reductionist framework under which the sole thing that matters about anyone is the group to which he, she, it belongs, let me start by telling readers that I am not now nor have I ever been a Catholic. I was raised an atheist my Scots-Canadian parents. Before that, both sides of my family were Calvinist Presbyterians of the fire and brimstone variety, not today’s guitar playing Kumbaya sort. I have a distant relative some century ago or more ago who was the Moderator of the Presbyterian…