Father Drinan: A force for good in all that he did

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2007 | by Tony Mauro

Father Robert Drinan was positively jubilant the last time I saw him, a few days after the elections in November, and just before his 86th birthday.

"God heard our prayers!" he said, looking skyward as he greeted friends and admirers at the Jesuit residence at Georgetown University. What he meant was clear: Finally the Democrats had taken control of Congress, where he had once served Massachusetts as the first priest elected to the House of Representatives.

On Sunday, Drinan died, stilling a passionate voice for human rights, legal ethics and old-fashioned politics -- the kind that serves the underserved. Though he showed no signs of slowing down when we met, it turns out I was privileged to have had one of the last press interviews with this moral dynamo,...