Posted on 01/28/2007 6:24:15 PM PST by Jim Noble
The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Jesuit who -- over the objections of his superiors -- became the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday.
Drinan, 86, had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure during the previous 10 days, according to a statement by Georgetown University.
"His death was peaceful, and he was surrounded by his family," said the Rev. John Langan, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community where Drinan lived.
An internationally known human-rights advocate, Drinan represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House for 10 years during the turbulent 1970s, and he stepped down only after a worldwide directive from Pope John Paul II barring priests from holding public office.
He 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.
Although a poll at the time showed that 30 percent of the voters in his district thought it was improper for a priest to run for office, Drinan considered politics a natural extension of his work in public affairs and human rights.
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
RIP. He chose the wrong party.
I guess Deval won't be able to appoint him to a post in his administration.
Mass. voters never cease to astound me.
I wouldn't wish damnation on anyone.
Drinan did much to further the cause of abortion. He also counseled politicians like Mario Cuomo and taught them that it was OK to be Catholic and support abortion. "I am personally opposed to abortion, BUT . . . ."
As far as I could see, he was as unrepentent as ever in his recent pronouncements. I hope he had some sort of deathbed conversion experience. Let God sort it out.
He fries in the 7th bolga of hell, false councilors.
I'll bet that that was one interesting particular judgment.
Just days ago, Drinan managed to say the mass celebrating Nancy Pelosi's ascension into the House speakership. Evidently that was the last straw.
Our gain. Someone else's loss.
I saw Jerry Falwell cut him to pieces on some news show many years ago. All Drinan could do was huff and puff.
Anyone know of any actual conservative GOP priests?
May God have mercy on his soul. He may be introduced to the souls of all those babies whose mothers aborted them because Catholic lawmakers were convinced by Drinan that the "personally opposed, but" stance was acceptable to the Church. These lawmakers are very public about their positions, and Catholics who might have a tenous link to the Church, are confused and are led to believe that abortion must not be that bad, because it's legal and 'Catholic' politicians support it.
I don't know how a minister , priest or rabbi could perform his ministerial duties and be a poltician simultaneously.
Well, all his career, he made what I consider to be wrong assessments and votes; but the only thing that matters now is this: was he born-again?
I have absolutely NO sympathy for Drinan.
I'm glad he's dead.
Ping!
What matters to me is his impact on our public life, which was negative.
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