Pressured by conservatives, the Pope ordered Father Drinan, model of moral tenacity, out of Congress

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Father Drinan, Model Of Moral Tenacity
By Colman McCarthy
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; Page C01

If you've ever wondered whether God laughs, think back to 1980, when the Rev. Robert Drinan was ordered by Pope John Paul II to get out of politics and leave Congress. The Jesuit priest, who died on Sunday, was finishing his fifth term representing a suburban Boston district that included Cambridge and Brookline. The pope had been hearing from rankled conservative American Catholics--the Pat Buchanan, William F. Buckley Jr., William Bennett wing of the church -- that Father Drinan, a purebred Democrat, was a dangerous liberal. His voting record on abortion was seen as too pro-choice....

John Paul, knowing that Jesuits take a vow of loyalty to popes, had his way. And who replaced the dangerously liberal Father Drinan? The more dangerously liberal Barney Frank--as ardent an advocate for abortion rights and as he was for gay rights....From Congress, Bob Drinan went a few blocks to Georgetown University Law Center.

It was a natural transition, from practicing the politics of peace and justice to teaching it. His classes on human rights law, constitutional law and legal ethics were routinely oversubscribed. Though I had met him before his days in Congress, when he served as dean of Boston College Law School, it was at Georgetown Law that our friendship grew. My classes there for the past 20 years have attracted the same kind of students that his did -- future public-interest lawyers, poverty lawyers, human-rights lawyers, and, in good years, a future Jack Olender or William Kunstler....I saw him as a towering moral giant, a man of faith whose practice of Christianity put him in the company of all my Jesuit heroes--Daniel Berrigan, Horace McKenna, Teilhard de Chardin, John Dear, Francis Xavier, the martyred Jesuits of El Salvador and the priests who taught me in college. In his office, ferociously unkempt and as tight as a monk's cell, our conversation ranged from politics to law to the morning's front pages. He was as knowledgeable about the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 as he was about the many allegations of international lawbreaking by the current Bush administration. Bob Drinan had mastered the art of being professionally angry but personally gentle.

As a priest, he was a pastor-at-large. He was at the altar at journalist Mary McGrory's funeral Mass. He celebrated the Nuptial Mass at the marriage of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and his wife, Lisa. And always, there were plenty of baptisms. As a writer, he produced a steady flow of books on human rights, poverty and social justice. He saved his most fiery writing for the National Catholic Reporter, the progressive weekly to which he contributed a regular column. His final one appeared on Dec. 15, a piece about the 26th anniversary of the martyrdom in El Salvador of Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford....

(Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace and teaches courses on nonviolence at four universities and three high schools.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902015.html

[Demeter]

1. Pope Pulled the Plug on Liberation Theology In South America, Too

But it was too late! The people had heard and witnessed, and learned to fight back. And on the 6th day, Chavez, Morales, and other populists were legally and honestly elected...

[formercia]

2. Pulled the plug with the barrel of a gun

Knights of Malta and Opus Dei saw to that.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Blessed are the Peacemakers.....

unless, of course, you are a Fundie RW Christianist.

[blm]

4. They wanted Drinan out because he was an anti-corruption, open government Democrat.

That wing of the party is always a target.

Father Drinan was always seeking openness and JUSTICE about the corruption in government. He was mentor to our finest anti-corruption lawmakers who followed him into congress and the senate.

Of course they wanted him gone. Many Democrats defending the status quo and DC powerstructure wanted him gone, too.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. fitting he left as Reagan came in

what a shame. He represents the Catholic church I grew up in.