The late Jesuit Father Robert Drinan: the priest who absolved pro-abortion politicians

Vivificat! - A Catholic's Blog of News, Opinion, Commentary, Reflections, and Prayers ^ | 10 September 2008 | TDJ

[Teófilo]

[Note: the following is a rework of Fr. Brinan's obituary published in Vivificat on January 29, 2007.]

He left behind a vast legacy of disobedience, scandal, and legally-sanctioned contempt for the life of the unborn.

Father Robert Drinan was a lawyer, self-styled human rights activist, and one-time Democrat U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. He was also a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Fr. Drinan many accomplishments include filing the bill to impeach President Richard Nixon in 1973—although years later he would argue strenuously against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. In the late 1990's, Fr. Drinan scandalized the Catholic world when he supported President Clinton's veto of the Partial Abortion bill, arguing that the brutal "dilation and extraction" method is sometimes medically necessary. Fr. Drinan went so far as to demand "that Congress include an exception to allow the use of the partial-birth procedure if a doctor deemed it necessary to preserve the "health" of the mother--a vague phrase which pro-lifers long ago realized could be used to justify practically any abortion."

The largest anti-abortion organization in the US, the National Right to Life Committee, has documented Drinan's virtually perfect pro-abortion voting record and the way in which his votes were used by other legislators to justify their own support of the practice. A fundraising letter mailed during Fr. Drinan's last congressional run by the National Abortion Rights Action League, denounced the pro-life movement in the strongest terms and cited Drinan as a friend whose re-election to Congress was essential to the abortion cause. Catholic World News has reprinted a detailed exposé written by Mr. James Hitchcock in 1996, back then a historian at St. Louis University, and a founder of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, in which he examined the thread of obfuscation, disingenuousness, and purposeful misunderstanding that enabled Fr. Drinan to tenuously justify his partisan election run and his dissent from his superiors.

According to Mr. Hitchcock, Fr. Drinan’s "departure from Congress hardly marked his departure from politics, as in due course he became president of the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and remained politically involved in other ways. His partisanship became increasingly shrill during the l980s, as he accused the administration of President Ronald Reagan of destroying American liberties and made strong personal attacks on the President’s character. He also became increasingly vituperative in his criticisms of the pro-life movement, and as head of the ADA sent out a fundraising letter specifically urging the moral necessity of electing pro-abortion candidates to Congress." Mr. Hitchcock wryly observed that "…progressive-minded Jesuits always hailed Pedro Arrupe as an enlightened man who was leading the Society precisely in these new directions. But as the Drinan case shows, even he could be ignored or defied when he did not live up to the expectations of the people he was supposed to be leading. Thus in making it possible for Drinan to run for Congress, his local superiors were also weakening the authority of the Jesuit General, a result which may have been more than merely incidental." Mr. Hitchcock concluded:

In l970 abortion had not yet become a partisan issue; there were many prominent pro-life Democrats. However, as the party moved toward an implacably pro-abortion position, and the number of pro-life Democrats steadily dwindled, Drinan's example was consistently cited as justification. How could any layman--especially one who was not a Catholic--be faulted for supporting abortion if the most prominent Catholic priest in public life did the same? Drinan bore heavy responsibility for making the Democratic Party the party of abortion. And he himself has come a long way down the same road, so that in 1996 he can dismiss opposition to late-term abortions--which he once characterized as homicide--as a merely partisan Republican trick.

These were, in my opinion, Fr. Drinan's real lifetime achievements:

• Fr. Drinan was a pro-abortion priest whose support of the abortion cause whitewashed the consciences of numerous fellow "progressive" Catholic and Christian members of Congress and beyond, at all levels of public life.
  
• Fr. Drinan's purported moral authority and penchant for nuance and pseudo-theological subterfuge, gave an aura of respectability to the pro-abortion stance and plenty of cover to many Catholic politicians.
  
• Furthermore, Fr. Drinan emboldened the wing of the Society of Jesus that equated the preaching of the Gospel with the pursuit of political activism and of social justice so-called; these priests, in turn, openly challenged and ridiculed bishops and cardinals critical of the direction of the order and of Jesuit political activism that ended in their open insubordination to legitimate authority. A few of these priests continue to this day to dissent with the Church in matters of abortion, priestly celibacy, homosexuality, and liberation theology, thanks in part to the space Fr. Drinan opened up for them.
  
• Fr. Drinan's fudging, intrigue, maneuvering, cajoling, and half-promises undermined the authority of the Jesuit Father General and brought the religious order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola into a state of disrepute not seen since the — unwarranted — suppression of said order back in the 18th century. I think that Fr. Drinan's deeds were partly to blame for the unprecedented papal intervention into Jesuit elections right around the time Fr. Drinan left Congress by order of Pope John Paul II.

In conclusion: Fr. Drinan's achievements rest upon the bodies of millions of aborted babies sacrificed over the altar of his peculiar understanding of "social justice." His legacy consists of the thousands of politicians, many of them "fervent Catholics" whose consciences he absolved through his words and example, and who continue to receive Holy Communion under grave sin without discerning the Body and the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fr. Robert Drinan was called to account before the Lord on January 28, 2007, at age 86.

- Read Father Drinan, lawmaker who defied Rome, dead at 86 and The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan at Catholic World News

- Read Father Drinan's article in the Wikipedia.

- Read also the Society of Jesus' Wikipedia entry.

[Teófilo]

Typos. Blunders. Mine.

[Teófilo]

PING!

[wideawake]

Good expose. Only missed the part about Drinan joining the Jesuits in the summer of 1942 in order to avoid being drafted.

Good thinking on his part - he would have been forced to fight against his hero otherwise.

[jmj3jude]

Sad! How many Catholics were led astray by his teachings? How many children died as a result of his evil promotion of abortion.

[Mr. Binnacle]

Must have been an interesting conversation with St. Peter at the Golden Gate upon his passing.

[webrover]

I didn't know the old devil was pau. It made my day.

[yazoo]

A marxist first a priest second.

[Teófilo]

Pardon my ignorance, but “pau”?

[pray4liberty]

Take a good look at his face...it's the same look of evil and corruption that Justices Blackmum and Ginsburg have.

The Devil marks his own to look like himself.

[Teófilo]

Take a good look at his face...

I don't wish to mock the dead but he does bear a passing resemblance with the preacher from Poltergeist II.

-Theo

[A.A. Cunningham]

Although none of us knows for certain I would wager that Drinan will spend eternity in hell with his mentor Lucifer.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Fr. Drinan***

I saw Jerry Falwell eat him alive in a televised debate years ago.

I thought Drinian was going to swell up and bust before the debate was over.

[webrover]

Hawaiian for done, finished, through. I wanted to be polite (sort of) regarding the old devil :)

[Ebenezer]

ping

[Ebenezer]

Not a priest, but an antipriest. God have mercy on “Father” Drinan’s soul.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Here's something to puzzle over.

I heard Drinan speak --- in I think it was 1986 or so ---- on Catholic Human Rights Doctrine. It was, in my estimation, a brilliant speech, even a Magisterial one (in both senses of the word.) In his talk he specifically identified the Catholic doctrine of the creation of the human person "in the image and likeness of God" as the foundation for all human rights, and correctly identified this as subsisting in every human being regardless of sex, race, age, functionality or degree of development.

I fully expected him to say at some point, "... and I deeply regret my support of abortion throughout my political career, and reject it as erroneous..." But he did not.

So I raised my hand (this was in a classroom) and praised him for his talk (he beamed) and then asked him to comment on his previous support for abortion.

His face visibly darkened, and he denied that he had ever been "for" abortion but claimed that there were principles secular law being separate from theology and blah-blah-blah --- completely negating the whole rest of his previous speech and, as well, blocking out the point that there is a strong secular case that human rights begin when human life begins, that point being determined by embryology, not theology.

Several other people joined me in making this point in a respectful, civil, and even a learned manner, but Drinan nevertheless became irate and heatedly stated that he didn't come here to be "harassed by ignorant fanatics." (Some of whom were scholarly priests and distinguished academic colleagues.)

I have truthfully never seen such a dramatic sudden descent into irrationality in my life. Even now, when I think of it, I am dumbfounded.

[maryz]

I was going to comment on that bizarre story . . . but I find it leaves me speechless . . . :(

[Antoninus]

I have truthfully never seen such a dramatic sudden descent into irrationality in my life. Even now, when I think of it, I am dumbfounded.

What I think you witnessed is precisely how satan deceives good people with high sounding words. Drinan was either too proud to admit his previous error, or was simply using his exposition of sound Catholic doctrine as a cover for spreading error. A veneer of honey covering a dungheap.

Abortion is an issue that truly helps us differentiate the wolves from the shepherds. Anyone who embraces it can not be a true Catholic, no matter how faithfully they expound on everything else.

[Ebenezer]

“Father” Drinan failed to recognize that protection of unborn human life from the violence of abortion is a basic human right. Didn’t he ever read about natural law and how civil law must conform to it?