(Drinan) Roman Catholic priest elected as voting member of Congress dies

[struggle4progress]

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON— The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Jesuit .... was elected in 1970, after he beat longtime Democratic Rep. Philip J. Philbin in a primary - and again in the November election, when Philbin was a write-in candidate. The only other priest to serve in Congress was a nonvoting delegate from Michigan in 1823 ...

His run for office came a year after he returned from a trip to Vietnam, where he said he discovered that the number of political prisoners being held in South Vietnam was rapidly increasing, contrary to State Department reports. And in a book the next year, he urged the Catholic Church to condemn the war as "morally objectionable."

He ran for Congress on an anti-Vietnam war platform. During his Congressional tenure, Drinan continued to dress in the robes of his clerical order and lived in a simple room in the Jesuit community at Georgetown ...

And he became the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon - although the call wasn't related to the Watergate scandal, but what Drinan viewed as the administration's undeclared war against Cambodia ...

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/APN/701283659

[Miss Chybil]

1. What a confusing headline. nt

[rumpel]

2. Rest in Peace, Father Drinan...

in gratitude

[merbex]

3. If I remember correctly John Paul II effectively ended Drinan's career by

in effect making all priests resign from political office

[Raine]

5. Yup, that's what I remember too. nt

[3waygeek]

20. Exactly

that was covered on NPR's Fresh Air today -- they replayed part of Terry Gross's interview with Drinan from 1988.

[Raine]

4. R-I-P Father Drinan

I remember him well, very sad news that such a good person has left us.

[Danmel]

6. I met Father Drinan

He came to speak at Boston University School of Law when I was student there (in the early 1980s). He was a very eloquent man and a strong proponent of the separation of Church and State. He was opposed to displays of creches and their religious items on public grounds. I distinctly remember my conversation with him. I said that if you say it is ok to have a creche ONLY if you have a Rudolph and a Santa, you are diminishing religion because you are reducing it to a part of a display and that those who are deeply religious should be MORE offended by trying to hide faith in a commercial display and that they should just keep their religious displays at church or at home whete they would not have to be diluted by other displays to make them acceptable.

and he looked at the Dean of the Law school and said "You have smart students here" and he smiled at me. Later he came over to me and shook my hand.

RIP Father Drinan- you were a very special man.

[CBHagman]

7. I met him at an ADA gathering.

That's Americans for Democratic Action.

I'm sorry to hear he's left us. People need to remember how many priests, nuns, and Catholic lay people have been active in progressive politics, particularly on the issues of human rights and peace. He's with Cesar Chavez and Oscar Romero and Jean Donovan and all the others.

[Hardrada]

12. And Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker.

[Davis_X_Machina]

18. Dorothy Day's cause...

...for sainthood has been advanced by the Archdiocese of New York.

Wonders never cease...

[regnaD kciN]

15. Same here...

It was at a Hiroshima "floating lantern" memorial held by various peace and disarmament groups at Green Lake in Seattle sometime in the '80s. (I would suspect August 1985, since that would have been the 40th anniversary of the bombing.)

It was a strange meeting -- although I was living in Massachusetts while he was a congressman, and was active in the antiwar and McGovern campaigns, I'm almost certain I never met him during that time. Nonetheless, when I came up to him, he acted as if he recognized me, and asked how things had been going the past few years.

I could only figure either:

a) I did meet him sometime back then, and managed to forget about it (something I highly doubt),
b) I looked like someone else he knew,
c) he heard enough of a trace of a Massachusetts accent to think he must have known me from somewhere, or
d) he just had a politician's reflex action of trying to establish a personal bond right away (although it was as strange way of doing it).

:shrug:

[JohnnyLib2]

8. He spoke out early and strongly.

RIP, good man

[Straight Shooter]

9. Is it possible to write a more ambiguous headline?

It appears to read that he was elected at the same time that a voting member of Congress died.

[merci_me]

10. Such a loss. Thank you for taking the time to let us know.

I sadly understood immediately upon reading your headline. Maybe because I remember Fr. Drinan so vividly and realized his time on earth was not to be for much longer.

He remained a devout Roman Catholic while challenging the system. It was about that very time, that I realized the Church and I had to part ways.

Godspeed dear and gentle man.

[PlanetBev]

11. This is sad news indeed

I loved me some Father Drinan. From what I remember, he was a burr in John Paul's saddle because of his liberal views on abortion and birth control. Rumor had it that John Paul was pressured by conservatives in the church to pass the order to forbid priests from serving in Congress. They just wanted to shut him up.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. I remember Father Drinan

This is a sad time for one such as he to leave us.

Enjoy the show from your new digs, Father.

[Vidar]

14. RIP Father Drinan.

[xchrom]

16. good night sweet prince -- you are gone too soon.

god bless and god speed.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Drinin was one of ours, a real good guy, a progressive voice

of the people.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Like the Berrigan brothers, he was a staunch advocate for peace

RIP :-(

On a side note, the late Pope John Paul II barred the clergy from serving in public office. He went bonkers about a priest that had joined the Sandinista government. JPII did not like Leftists, even though he found himself supporting leftist causes many times.

[brooklynite]

21. Some sensitive comments from our FR-iends...

Hope he enjoys HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will he simply roast in Hell worshipping the liberal politics and socialists he joins?

an example of pure unadulterated evil.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1775724/posts

Nothing like some "Christian Charity" for an individual who gave his entire life in service to others...