c. 2007 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Robert F. Drinan, the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of the U.S. Congress, died Sunday (Jan. 28) in a Washington hospital. He was 86.
Drinan represented Massachusetts as a Democrat for a decade starting in 1971. He suffered congestive heart failure and pneumonia in the 10 days before his death, said the Rev. John Langan, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community, of which Drinan was a member.
“He was a much cherished member of our community, admired for his simplicity of life and his dedication to the cause of justice and enjoyed for his energy and his gift of friendship,” Langan said in a statement.
The Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center, said Drinan was a good friend whose “distinguished life” included serving as a lawyer and a spokesman for human and civil rights.
“He wasn’t in Congress representing the Catholic Church,” Reese, a fellow Jesuit, said in an interview. “He was representing the people of his district and the good of the country as he saw it.”
Drinan was one of three Catholic priests to serve in Congress prior to a Vatican edict preventing priests from holding elected office. The Rev. Robert J. Cornell represented northeast Wisconsin for two terms in the 1970s, said Albert Menendez, director of research for the Silver Spring, Md.-based Americans for Religious Liberty. Before Michigan was a state, the Rev. Gabriel Richard represented it as a nonvoting delegate in the 1820s.
Drinan held moderate views on abortion and school prayer, countering attempts to overturn Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s that outlawed organized prayer in public schools.
“What’s fascinating about him was his strong opposition to the school prayer amendments that came up in the House in 1971,” said Menendez, whose organization tracks the religious affiliation of members of Congress.
“He felt that it was wrong to have required daily prayer. … To have a priest lead the fight on religious liberties grounds … was quite significant and notable, especially when he was a freshman in Congress.”
Reese and Menendez said the Vatican had more than the U.S. in mind when church leaders decided to ban priests from elected office. They were concerned about priests serving in the Nicaraguan government as well.
“The Vatican was telling them to get out of government and not be involved in a political party,” Reese said.
Drinan left Congress _ reportedly with “regret and pain” _in 1980. He was succeeded by Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat who continues to hold that seat.
Frank praised his predecessor late last year after Georgetown University Law School established a human rights chair in Drinan’s name.
“Few people in our history have had as great a dedication to the cause of human rights and have been so consistently effective in advocating for this cause,” Frank said on the floor of the House.
Drinan opposed the Vietnam War and was the first to introduce a bill to impeach President Nixon, though he sought the president’s removal because of the U.S. government’s involvement in Cambodia and not because of the Watergate scandal.
Drinan also served as dean and law professor at Boston College Law School and taught at Georgetown University Law Center. He authored a dozen books and taught more than 6,000 students.
While he was in Congress, he continued to wear his clerical collar.
When asked if he would retain his black clerical suits while serving on Capitol Hill, Drinan replied, “They’re the only clothes I have.”
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Editors: To obtain photos of the Rev. Robert F. Drinan and the Rev. Robert J. Cornell, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
