Robert Drinan

Infobox Congressman
name =Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J.


state =Massachusetts
district =3rd & 4th
term_start =January 3, 1971
term_end =January 3, 1973 (3rd)
January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1981 (4th)
preceded =Philip J. Philbin (1971)
Harold Donohue (1973)
succeeded =Harold Donohue (1973)
Barney Frank (1981)
birth_date =birth date|1920|11|15|mf=y
birth_place =Boston, Massachusetts
death_date =death date and age|2007|1|28|1920|11|15|mf=y
death_place =Washington, D.C.
nationality =
party =Democrat
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =Priest, legislator, professor
religion =Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

Father Robert Frederick Drinan, S.J. (November 15 1920 – January 28 2007) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. He was also a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center for the last twenty-six years of his life.

Education and legal career

Drinan grew up in Hyde Park, Massachusetts and graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1938. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Boston College in 1942 and joined the Jesuit Order the same year; he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1953. He received an LL.M. and LL.B. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1950, and a doctorate in theology from Gregorian University in Rome in 1954, in addition to receiving 21 honorary degrees throughout his life. He studied in Florence for two years before returning to Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1956. He served as dean of the Boston College Law School from 1956 until 1970, during which time he also taught as a professor of family law and church-state relations. During this period he was also a visiting professor at other schools including the University of Texas School of Law, and served on several Massachusetts state commissions convened to study legal issues such as judicial salaries and lawyer conflicts of interest.

ervice in Congress

In 1970, Drinan sought a seat in Congress on an anti-Vietnam War platform, narrowly defeating longtime Representative Philip J. Philbin, who was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in the Democratic primary. Drinan went on to win election to the House of Representatives, and was re-elected four times, serving from 1971 until 1981. He was the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress. Nancy Frazier O'Brien; Catholic News Service; February 2, 2007; Page 4; The Compass (official publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay)] [Father Gabriel Richard served from 1823 to 1825 as a non-voting delegate from the Michigan Territory. Father Robert J. Cornell, a Norbertine priest, became the second Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress as a Representative from Wisconsin, 1975–1979.] Drinan sat on various House committees, and served as the chair of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee. He was also a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

Drinan was the first member of Congress, in July 1973, to introduce a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, though not for the Watergate Scandal that ultimately ended Nixon's presidency. Drinan believed that Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia was illegal, and as such, constituted a "high crime and misdemeanor". However, the Judiciary Committee voted 21 to 12 against including that charge among the articles of impeachment that were eventually approved and reported out to the full House of Representatives. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Drinan played an integral role in the Congressional investigation of Nixon Administration misdeeds and crimes.

Drinan's consistent support of abortion rights drew significant opposition from Church leaders throughout his political career, who had also repeatedly requested that he not hold political office in the first place. cite news
url=http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=21136 |accessdate=2007-02-03
title=The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan
author=Hitchcock, James
date=July 1 1996
work=Catholic World News] Drinan attempted to reconcile his position with official Church doctrine by stating that while he was personally opposed to abortion, considering it "virtual infanticide," [" [http://www.thehoya.com/news/102706/news2.cfm New Chair For Drinan Draws Ire] ", "The Hoya", October 27, 2006.] its legality was a separate issue from its morality. This argument failed to satisfy his critics.

In 1980, Pope John Paul II unequivocally demanded that all priests withdraw from electoral politics. Drinan complied and did not seek reelection. "'It is just unthinkable,' he said of the idea of renouncing the priesthood to stay in office. 'I am proud and honored to be a priest and a Jesuit. As a person of faith I must believe that there is work for me to do which somehow will be more important than the work I am required to leave.'"cite journal | author=Mark Feeney| title=Rev. Drinan, first priest elected as voting member of Congress, dies| journal=The Boston Globe| date=January 28, 2007| url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/01/28/rev_drinan_first_priest_elected_as_voting_member_of_congress_dies/]

Following his death, members of Congress honored Drinan's memory with a moment of silence on the House floor on January 29, 2007.

Teaching, writing, and later life

Drinan taught at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. from 1981 to 2007, where his academic work and classes focused on legal ethics and international human rights. He privately sponsored human rights missions to countries such as Chile, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Vietnam. In 1987, he founded the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Drinan continued to be a vocal supporter of abortion rights, much to the ire of the Church, and notably spoke out in support of President Bill Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 1996. In his weekly column for the Catholic New York, ["Catholic New York (June 20, 1996)"] John Cardinal O'Connor sharply denounced Drinan. "You could have raised your voice for life; you raised it for death," the cardinal wrote. "Hardly the role of a lawyer. Surely not the role of a priest." In 1997, under orders from his Jesuit superiors, Drinan publicly retracted his support for partial-birth abortion.cite news
url=http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/~dewolf/drinan.htm |accessdate=2007-01-29
title=Posturing on Abortion
author=Drinan, Robert F.
date=June 4 1996
work=The New York Times Op-ed piece by Drinan, originally published in the "New York Times". ]

He regularly contributed to law reviews and journals, and authored several books, including "The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights," published by Yale University Press in 2001.

Drinan died of pneumonia and congestive heart failure on January 28 2007 in Washington, D.C. [" [http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=22251 Georgetown Remembers Rev. Robert F. Drinan, S.J.] ", Georgetown University Office of Communications, January 28 2007.]

Associations and awards

Drinan served as a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates until his death and was chair of the ABA Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. In 2004, Drinan received the ABA Medal, the organization's highest honor for distinguished service in law. On May 10 2006, Drinan was presented the Distinguished Service Award by then Speaker Dennis Hastert and then Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on behalf of the House of Representatives.

Drinan served on the Board of Directors of People for the American Way, the International League for Human Rights, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the International Labor Rights Fund, Americans for Democratic Action, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. For many years he was chairman on PeacePAC, a division of Council for a Livable World, and a Director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

References

External links

*CongBio|D000499
* [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=21136 The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan] by James Hitchcock, "Catholic World News", 9 January 2002
* [http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/29/congressman_priest_drinan_dies/ Congressman-priest Drinan dies] — "The Boston Globe", January 29 2007