Robert Drinan, S.J. - R.I.P.
I suspect that many readers are already aware of the passing of Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J., who died yesterday at the age of 86. CNN’s story lays out the contours of his colorful–and often controversial–career as a priest, attorney, civil rights activist and member of the House of Representatives.
I got to meet Drinan very briefly in 1992. My wife was a student at Georgetown Law at the time, and I was recruited to join a group of law students heading up to Philadelphia to do GOTV work for the Clinton campaign (a task which included the side benefit of consuming significant quantities of cannolli). Drinan spoke to our group before we boarded our buses, giving us such a rousing stemwinder of a speech that it made me think he was the one running for President!
Drinan told a story about the late Mo Udall, who at that time was still alive but was ill with Parkinson’s disease (he passed away in 1998). Drinan had gone out to visit Udall. “Father,” said Udall, “I have a request. After I die, I want to be buried in Chicago, so I can still be politically active after I’ve gone.”
I’m sure we can debate Drinan’s positions on various issues and the question of whether priests should hold political office. But today my prayer is that when Fr. Robert meets his Lord face to face, he will hear the words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
on January 29th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
For several hours I’ve resisted responding, finally without success, to Peter’s post about the death of Fr. Drinan. Call me a coward, but I didn’t want to be the first to respond to the post, most likely because I thought it would seem unchristian to say anything critical about Fr. Drinan on the day of his passing. In addition, I would never presume to know what was in Fr. Drinan’s heart and mind in his final days, or to know what Christ said to him when they came face to face.
There are a great many things I admired about Fr. Drinan, but I’m sorry to say that his near-perfect pro-abortion voting record was not one of them, and neither was his post-Congress public support for President Clinton’s veto of the legislation prohibiting partial-birth abortions. Unfortunately, IMO, Fr. Drinan’s weak distinction between personally morally opposed and legal/constitutional right provided cover for a great many Catholic politicians–Mario Cuomo and John Kerry come immediately to mind–to vote pro-abortion.
I sincerely hope that Fr. Drinan heard the wonderful words Peter quotes, and I will certainly remember Fr. Drinan in my prayers.
on January 29th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Several newspapers have printed unsmiling photos of Father Drinan. The best photo (most human) that I have seen today is in this blog:
on January 29th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
http://www.linuxgreenhouse.org/blog/tim/novena-002.html
on January 30th, 2007 at 8:31 am
He died on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas: I said one of Aquinas’s prayers for him:
Tantum Ergo Sacramentum
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! The Sacred Host we hail.
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing,
Newer rites of Grace prevail:
Faith for all defects supplying,
Where the feeble senses fail.
To The Everlasting Father
And The Son Who reigns on high,
With The Spirit blessed proceeding
Forth, from Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing,
Might and endless majesty. Amen.
on January 30th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Colman McCarthy noted in today’s Washington Post that the successor to Fr. Drinan is Barney Frank. As McCarthy said, surely God laughs, in this case particularly at the Vatican.
on February 8th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
You might be interested in Prof. Hitchcock’s 1996 article from the Catholic World Report on Drinan’s political career, http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=21136
Hitchcock made extensive use of documents he obtained from the archives of the New England Jesuit province.
Drinan and the NE province never disputed the article.
I’ll never forget John Cardinal O’Connor’s words in the Catholic New York after Drinan came out for partial-birth abortions. “I am deeply sorry, Father Drinan, but you’re wrong, dead wrong,” the cardinal wrote. “You could have raised your formidable voice for life; you have raised it for death. Hardly the role of a lawyer. Surely not the role of a priest.”
Nixon will always be remembered for Watergate.
Cardinal Law will always be remembered for covering up sex abuse.
And Father Robert Drinan will always be known as the priest who defended abortion.